A WIDOW who lent her best friend almost £80,000 to fight a court battle is demanding her money back after discovering the story behind the loan could have been a sham.

Bette Cohen, pictured left, is suing her former close friend Victoria Pike for the £79,500 she loaned her to fund a legal dispute with her family.

Mrs Cohen handed over the money after Mrs Pike told her how she was locked in a bitter court battle over a £500,000 life insurance policy she was entitled to after her husband's death.

Mrs Cohen, 67, gave her friend the money in sums ranging from £1,000 to £10,000 on 17 different occasions to help her fight the case, according to a writ issued by her solicitors, Thomas Eggar Church Adams, based in Liverpool Gardens, Worthing.

Mrs Pike told her friend the final hearing was due last November, but when Mrs Cohen rang the High Court, she discovered they had no record of the case, it is claimed.

Solicitors acting for Mrs Cohen, of Portland Road, Hove, have now filed a High Court writ demanding the return of the money with interest.

The 67-year-old was living in North London in 1996 when she met Mrs Pike, of Ash Lane, Rustington, near Worthing.

It is claimed Mrs Pike told her friend she was involved in litigation with members of her family over the life insurance policy of her late husband. She also said her assets, including a bank account in the Channel Islands containing £50,000, had been frozen.

After an initial loan of £1,000 in June, 1998, Mrs Cohen agreed total loans of £79,500.

Mrs Cohen, who moved to Hove the same year, said: "Her story was that her family had something against her and had her assets frozen. She was supposed to have had a lot of money.

"When her husband died she had a half a million pound policy and she was always telling us she was owed the money.

"It went on from there with her saying she was fighting a court battle.

"Then this man suddenly appeared from nowhere in September and there was this announcement they were going to get married."

Mrs Cohen then discovered there was no record of a court

case and her friend moved to London.

Solicitors acting for Mrs Pike, who is in her fifties and has now remarried, said they were waiting for instructions.

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