A 43-year-old Asian-origin woman is suing her mother and brother over a property empire that she claims was built using her gold coins, according to media reports.
Tajleena Islam, a mother of two, claims her parents used gold coins, family treasures, and jewellery in creating their £2.6 million London-based property fortune.
Now she is trying to stake a claim in half of the fortune and approached the High Court.
Her mother, Sultana, and brother, Rahit, have accused Tajleena of lying.
The £2.6m portfolio was bought using Tajleena’s name and the name of her parents: Mohammed and Sultana.
Tajleena’s father was a psychiatrist and moved to London in 2000.
After Mohammed died in 2017, a row erupted between the legal heirs and Sultana claims Tajleena threw her out of the home. Tajleena has denied the claim.
She said her parents used £360,000 of her gold and £150,000 of inherited money to start the portfolio.
Tajleena’s barrister claims she had trusted her mother to keep her inheritance safe for her.
However, Sultana denied the claim and told the court that the only jewellery she had was what she got during her marriage.
Sultana and Rahit’s lawyer argued Tajleena had provided little evidence about the existence of any gold and jewellery cache.
The lawyer also pointed out that in 2000 Tajleena was working part-time in a shop and was financially dependent on her parents for many years that followed.
Hence to claim that she was a co-contributor of capital to her parents’ purchase of investment property had no basis, the lawyer argued.
Tajleena claims that one property was bought using her name while she was a student in the Czech Republic.
She said that once her father died, she was shocked to learn that she was no longer an owner.
She claims she was the victim of “undue influence” from her father and brother who also persuaded her to sign over her stakes in the other four properties.
Sultana’s lawyer said that Tajleena had “willingly signed” the property transfer documents.
He said the money for the purchase of the properties between 2000 and 2006 came from capital accumulated by Sultana and Mohammed following the sale of other properties.
Given her young age, Tajleena was able to help her parents borrow money and the creditors were given the impression that she part-owned the assets.
