Thanks for the tea & sympathy - I appreciate it. But you should all know, I'm not really bothered for myself. The real 'crime' was committed against one of my sisters, whom he used as his personal bank when he needed cash to pay his tax bills. He died owing her around $13k, but didn't have the decency (or perhaps even memory?) to at least settle his debt to her.
He also cleaned out his mother's savings account (around $20k), and when she died, 2 of his sisters were left to pick up the bills for her funeral. That should give you some idea of what sort of person he was. To call him a right tool would be an insult to tools.