London - A man who murdered his children’s author fiancee for her £4 million fortune got just a few thousand pounds, it emerged yesterday.
Ian Stewart spent only £3 154 of Helen Bailey’s money - renewing his Arsenal FC season ticket.
The 56-year-old killed her at their £1.5million home and then reported her missing.
Police found her body in a cesspit with the remains of her dog, Boris, three months later and Stewart was jailed for life.
During his trial, it emerged Miss Bailey, 51, had changed her will to leave most of her fortune to Stewart, who had not worked for years and lived on a £2 000-a-month insurance payout from his last job as a computer software expert.
During a confiscation hearing at St Albans Crown Court, Hertfordshire, yesterday, Stuart Trimmer QC, prosecuting, said the only financial benefit Stewart had obtained was £10 200 he electronically transferred into a joint account.
After reporting Miss Bailey missing he altered a standing order from one of her accounts to pay £4 000 a month rather than £600.
He renewed his season ticket but the rest of the money stayed in the account. It was also confirmed yesterday that Stewart – who sold his own home when he moved in with Miss Bailey – would not acquire her share of their house in Royston, Hertfordshire, due to his murder conviction.
Judge Andrew Bright QC made a confiscation order for £5 100 – half the money in the joint account. He told Stewart, appearing via video link from HMP Bedford, that he had 28 days to pay the figure.
Electra Brown author Miss Bailey was reported missing in April last year. Stewart, who is serving a minimum of 34 years, plied her with sedatives before smothering her.
He had stood to inherit Miss Bailey’s assets of more than £3million, including the family home, a £300,000 cottage in Broadstairs, Kent, as well as a £1.28 million life insurance payout. She wrote a will in 2012 leaving her assets to her brother and her two step-children before making Stewart the main beneficiary in June 2014.
The couple met in 2011, less than a year after Stewart’s wife, Diane, died after an epileptic fit. Miss Bailey’s husband had drowned in Barbados in February 2011.