Owners of death cottage tell burglars to stay away

Keeper's Cottage has been plagued by burglars since Neil Bacon was murdered in a plot hatched by his wife Susan and son Michael to seize his 350,000 fortune – part of which was stashed at the house.

The remote property on the edge of Clumber Park near Worksop, Nottinghamshire, has been burgled six times in the past year, in the belief that some of the cash is still hidden there.

Officials acting for the landowning company, which owns the cottage, spoke out yesterday.

Spokesman Henry Spencer, who works for chartered surveyors King West, said: "There are people in the criminal world who seem to think that there's a hidden sum of money waitiing to be found at the cottage but they need to know that there's nothing there, absolutely nothing at all."

Police finally emptied all the family's possessions from the cottage last month.

Mr Spencer added: "The cottage was treated as a crime scene until that point with the result that nothing could be moved, but the place is now completely empty, and we have been able to take possession once again. There was a considerable sum of money at the property at the time of the murder, some it was found by the police inside Mr Bacon's gun cabinet, but the cash is long gone, and there's no reason for anyone to break into the cottage now."

Mr Bacon, 50, died after being stabbed six times on the driveway of the cottage in November 2008. His wife, son and the killer have since been jailed.