A millionaire businessman who murdered his wife during their bitter divorce battle is being sued by two of his sons for half his £3 million fortune.
Car dealer Ian Workman, 63, was jailed for life in 2011 for stabbing his wife Susan to death with a kitchen knife during a blazing row at their home.
He now faces legal action by sons Ben, 27, and Nicholas, 23, who are determined to get the £1.5 million divorce settlement they believe their late mother would have been owed.
They say Workman, who is fighting the claim from behind bars, will have “profited” from the murder if he is allowed to keep the money.
But the killer, who had an estimated £3.3 million fortune, told the Court of Appeal he stabbed his wife of 35 years in anger rather than for cash.
Workman has also given away most of his wealth to his eldest son Grant, 28, who has “stuck by” him despite the murder conviction, the court heard.
Mrs Workman was killed by a single stab wound to her heart during the row at home in Edgworth, near Bolton, in April 2011.
According to a diary entry she was writing at the time, Workman came to the house to collect clothes before hurling a stream of abuse at her.
Stephen Killalea QC, for the two sons, said the murder happened during a row over the financial fallout of their divorce, as Mrs Workman was in line to receive £1.5 million.
But the money stayed with her husband following his murder conviction at Preston crown court in December 2011.
In 2013, the brothers won a court judgement awarding them £1,503,579 and an injunction to force Workman into disclosing his assets worldwide.
But Mr Killalea said the killer made “no attempt at all” to comply with the order and should be barred from defending his sons’ claim.
He also told the court Workman has “voluntarily dissipated virtually all his assets” to son Grant.
Workman claims he is being treated “unfairly and oppressively” by his two younger sons. Katherine McQuail, for Workman, denied a “profit motive” lay behind the murder, and said he was “in temper” over the divorce dispute.
The court has reserved its judgement to a later date.
