Widow, 47, jailed for faking husband's £1m will claims she is now pregnant to new Turkish husband

Dawn Smith, 47, was said to have been "utterly shocked" by the news but a judge raised suspicions about the motives and questioned whether it was planned.

And The Northern Echo understands that police are investigating the pregnancy claims - and if they were made in a bid to get a lighter sentence.

Smith, from Darlington, was jailed for 21 months yesterday and was branded "manipulative and deceitful, selfish and callous" by Judge John Walford.

The Teesside Crown Court judge said: "It is of concern to the court that this lady, in the circumstances of this case, should have become pregnant.

"There must be a suspicion, to put it no higher, that she has deliberately become pregnant in order to gain an advantage in the sentencing process."

Dawn Smith with her new Turkish husband, a waiter in the resort of Marmaris

Defence barrister Caroline Goodwin told the court that the pregnancy was unplanned and was a surprise to Smith and her new husband - a Turkish waiter.

Soon after her late husband Harvey's death in 2012, she married again, and it has since emerged she was Facebook friends with him from before then.

She has left debts in her late husband's name - by not settling the £3,600 bill for his funeral - auctioned family heirlooms to fund her trips to Turkey.

Smith worked as a legal secretary when she drew up the bogus document in her office so she and a son from an earlier relationship were left everything.

After her husband's death in November 2012, she initially told his family she didn't believe he had a last will and testament.

However, she later produced it - back-dated to February 2011 - which left their £500,000 house and £420,000 pension to her.

It excluded Mr Smith's eldest daughter Karen Harwood, 43, and included explicit instructions that her sister Zoe Traherne, 25, should not receive anything at all.

A partner at the Darlington law firm Hewitt's were suspicious that the women were overlooked and Smith's son was included, and staff examined the document.

Among the basic basic errors they discovered was that one of the supposed witnesses had alreday left the firm at the time they were said to have signed it.

Another had changed offices, and after police were called in, a handwriting expert concluded that Mr Smith's signature was not the same as his real one.

Tonight, Detective Constable Mick Trodden thanked staff at the law firm for their "professionalism and great assistance" in the investigation.

He described Smith's crimes as "cynical and calculating" and said the wealthy businessman's family had been put through hell by her greed and dishonesty.

Dawn Smith arrives at Teesside Crown Court to learn her sentence

Judge Walford told Smith she had "turned upside down" the worlds of her late husband's daughters by making them believe they had been left nothing.

Daughter Karen was in court to read out an impact statement which told of her family's anguish - and the hurt that Smith remarried soon after being widowed.

The judge praised her for "so eloquently expressing" how the forged will made her and her sister feel their father had turned his back on them.

He told Smith: "It was too late for them to be able to discover the truth of his feelings for them and in so doing, you turned their world upside down.

"What you did revealed you to be manipulative and deceitful, selfish and callous."

He said she abused her position of trust by using knowledge she gleaned as a solicitor's secretary at a firm where her late husband was a client.

Mr Smith's daughter spoke emotionally about the "tremendous" impact the case had on her life, how her health had suffered and she needed counselling.

She told how being cut out of his will made her feel her father had not loved her and his three grandchildren - and of Smith's fake horror at the news.

"It made me think what had I done for him to behave in this way and abandon me," she said. "I always believed my dad would provide something for his grandchildren as he loved them so much.

"Before this crime became apparent, I recall Dawn Smith on a number of occasions expressing to me and to others her disgust at my father's apparent action."

She said her family had been "robbed" of knowing what his true intentions were, and said Smith told her: "I cannot believe he's done this to you and your kids."

And she said a proud man like her father would have been disgusted to know that his funeral bill went unpaid, leaving a debt against his name.

His widow denied any wrong-doing until the trial was due to start in November - despite what the judge called "overwhelming" circumstantial and scientific evidence.

Miss Goodwin read a lengthy letter from Smith detailing her feelings of remorse and self-hatred, and in which she apologised for the pain she caused.

"Being part of a family means you are part of something irreplaceable,"

She wrote. "I forgot that and I accept that I am no longer part of the family, but that is my own fault."

Part of the letter said: "How do I say sorry when words are not enough? My words are not enough to convey all the feelings I am trying to put into them.

"I am very sorry for my actions. I am struggling to come to terms with the hurt I have caused the family, and I understand their feelings of animosity and hatred."

Judge Walford told her that her "vehement denials right up until the last minute" gave her apology and expression of remorse had "a hollow ring".

It emerged that she had visited Turkey on an almost monthly basis between Mr Smith's death in 2012 and her first court appearance last February.

Smith faked the signatures of her 61-year-old husband, another legal secretary and a solicitor on the bogus document that she drew up in 2010. She admitted charges of forgery and making a false statement on oath.

Mr Smith's daughter told the court: "I still cannot believe that somebody could be so cruel to do such a thing . . . it still puzzles me.

"I find it hard to accept Dawn remarrying so soon after dad died, and discovering she visited Turkey almost on a monthly basis for 13 months after wards."

Smith, a former Stockton school pupil, wed her wealthy husband - awarded the MBE in the 1980s for services to business - three years before his death.

After meeting on a night out in her home town when a friend dared her to kiss Mr Smith, they began dating and Smith moved into his detached three-storey home in 2006.

She publicly announced the death online - on a forum for Subaru car owners, where the businessman was hailed a genius - saying she had lost her husband and best friend.

Statement read outside court by Mr Smith's daughters, Karen Harwood (left) and Zoe Traherne 

"Today has given some degree of closure to a very difficult chapter in my and my family’s life.

"Through the actions of Dawn Smith, or Baydan, my father’s last wishes and intentions have been lost forever and will never be truly known. Promises that he made to us, his family, have been overturned by her.

"Dawn Smith’s criminal activities have caused great pain and upset to me and my family. The fact that she repeatedly refused to plead guilty until she had no other option has prolonged the upset and misery for us all.

"The sentence handed to her today acknowledges her crime of forgery and deception to some degree; she has however never offered an apology or explanation to us his family into why she committed this crime.

"In accordance with the UK intestacy Laws it seems hard to believe she still benefits and receives in financial terms the vast majority of my father’s estate of which she can continue spending from the moment she leaves court today.

"Many might consider that an injustice, I know my dad who is the victim in all of this would."

The daughters of Ronald Harvey Smith, Karen Harwood (left) and Zoe Traherne, read a statement outside court after pregnant widow Dawn Smith was jailed for 21 months at Teesside Crown Court today