Could Sadie legally keep Jimmy's hidden money in Emmerdale?

Sadie and Robert's hunt for Jimmy's missing money leads them to Hotten Golf Club in Emmerdale this week, after Manpreet recognises a mysterious key as belonging to Jimmy's locker. The pair race to open it before Nicola and Rodney arrive, hoping the missing cash could finally be inside.

Viewers have been speculating about the location of Jimmy's money for weeks, with some correctly suggesting a golf-club locker before the latest spoilers were released.

There is another question underneath the treasure hunt, though: even if Sadie finds the cash first, would she actually have any legal right to keep it?

Finding Jimmy's money would not make it Sadie's

If the cash belonged to Jimmy when he died, it would normally form part of his estate alongside his other money, possessions and property.

Whoever physically discovers an estate asset does not become its owner simply because they reached it first.

The people legally responsible for dealing with an estate are its personal representatives. If Jimmy left a valid will, that would normally mean the executors named in it, while different rules determine who can administer an estate where there is no will.

Those representatives are expected to identify the deceased person's assets, deal with debts and taxes and then distribute what remains according to the will or the rules of intestacy.

Hidden cash would therefore need to be accounted for in exactly the same way as money sitting in an ordinary account.

What if Sadie believes Jimmy wanted her to have it?

That would depend on evidence of what Jimmy actually did before his death.

If he had genuinely given money away while alive, or it legally belonged to somebody else, the position could be different.

Simply claiming that Jimmy would have wanted Sadie to have the money would not normally override his estate arrangements.

Being a former spouse would not automatically give her ownership of cash discovered after his death either.

That makes Robert and Sadie's secret search legally risky as well as morally questionable. If the locker does contain Jimmy's money, finding it would solve the mystery of where he hid it without necessarily answering the much bigger question of who is entitled to receive it.

Emmerdale streams on ITVX from 7am on transmission days and airs on ITV1. Images: ITV

Legal source: GOV.UK probate and estate administration guidance.