A businesswoman who forged her lover’s will to steal his £185,500 inheritance has been ordered to repay just £6,000.

Victoria Kendrew devised the scheme to keep the estate of retired policeman Peter Farquharson out of the hands of his estranged wife.

Mr Farquharson was living with Kendrew at her home in Whimple, near Exeter, for 15 months when he took his own life in March 2008.

He moved away from his former home in Teignmouth after splitting up from his wife Jayne Humphries after a 17-year marriage, but never changed his will.

Kendrew believed Mr Farquharson intended to change his will to cut his ex-wife out of his inheritance and persuaded two old fishing friends to act as false witnesses to her forgery.

Mr Farquharson owned a house in Third Avenue, Teignmouth, where his father lived, a fishing boat, a Land Rover car and a large stock of valuable fishing and shooting equipment.

Kendrew created a false will, apparently made two months before the suicide. It was in her own favour and falsely witnessed by friends Carl Jensen and Kevin Dodd.

The plot remained undetected for five years but Ms Humphries, who is also a police officer, remained suspicious and a new inquiry showed that the witnesses were at work in Surrey on the day they were supposed to have witnessed the will.

Kendrew, aged 45, of Lilypond Lane, Whimple, was jailed for three-and-a-half years after being found guilty of conspiracy to forge a will by a jury at Exeter Crown Court two years ago.

She became the subject of a financial investigation under the Proceeds of Crime Act which showed she had benefited by £185,500 from the crime but her available assets were only £6,000.

Recorder Mr Timothy Rose approved an agreed order that she should repay £6,000 within three months or serve a further four months in jail.

Kendrew, who has completed the custodial part of her jail sentence and is now out of prison on licence, attended the hearing at Exeter Crown Court.

During a trial in October 2014 the jury heard how Kendrew claimed to have found the will in a pocket of Mr Farquaharson’s fishing jacket after he hanged himself in the kitchen of her home.

She took it to her solicitor a few weeks before Miss Humphries was due to inherit the estate. The plot was uncovered by police and Dodd and Jensen both admitted they were pressurised by Kendrew.

She told them she wanted to keep Mr Farquharson’s estate out of the hands of Miss Humphries, who she considered ’a money-grabber’.

Kendrew is a former property developer who went on to run a business making waterless urinals. She said she had been framed.