By 1853, William, who spent unwisely seeking to establish himself in fashionable society, was already in debt and launched a sequence of deceptions and forgeries, dishonestly to obtain much of his father's property.
[4] Shee opened Richard's case by presenting the background of the Roupell family property, William's financial difficulties and the alleged facts of the frauds and forgeries.
Shee called William who admitted the frauds and forgeries and his own perjury in the grant of probate of his father's estate.
The judge, Mr Justice Byles, emphasising the seriousness of the offences, sentenced William to penal servitude for life.
William, still in custody but not in prison dress, again gave evidence of his own wrongdoing and various witnesses attested to Richard Palmer's careful business habits and his handwriting and signature.