Sister of Shaggy’s It Wasn’t Me Co-Writer Hit With £126k Court Bill

The half-sister of British-Jamaican singer Rickardo “Rik Rok” Ducent, best known for featuring on Shaggy’s 2000 hit “It Wasn’t Me,” has been ordered to pay £126,000 in legal costs after losing a court battle over her father’s near-£1 million estate.

Sarah Ducent, half-sister of the 52-year-old vocalist, sued his mother, Dorothy Ducent, seeking what she argued was “reasonable provision” from her late father’s estate. She told the court she was living in poverty in London.

Herbert Ducent, who died in 2007 at the age of 63, left most of his estate — valued at more than £900,000 — to his widow, Dorothy. His daughter Sarah was not included in the will, with Rik Rok saying Herbert had become “estranged” from her, a claim Sarah disputes.

Herbert was a businessman who built a successful construction company in Jamaica and also operated a busy bakery on Coldharbour Lane in Brixton, south London. His estate includes assets in both London and Jamaica.

Dorothy, who worked with Herbert in the family’s south London bakery business, inherited his wealth under a will prepared in Jamaica.

Sarah’s claim was rejected by a judge at Central London County Court, who ordered her to contribute £126,000 toward Dorothy’s legal costs.

The former civil servant returned to the same court last week to challenge the six-figure costs order, describing the amount as “excessive” and “disproportionate.”

However, lawyers for Dorothy defended the use of a default costs certificate against Sarah — a court document that fixes the sum owed when a party does not dispute legal costs within the required deadline.

They highlighted Sarah’s past non-compliance with court orders, including a previous order that she pay £40,000 towards Dorothy’s legal fees that never materialised. 

Judge Jane Evans-Gordon rejected Sarah’s bid to ‘set aside’ the order. She found there were no solid grounds to challenge the bill, while accepting Sarah ‘just doesn’t have that sort of money’ to pay. 

‘I am not going to set aside the default costs’ certificate, I am not satisfied that £126,000 for a dispute of this nature is plainly disproportionate,’ she said.

‘There was a three-day trial and there have been a number of hearings. It was also an international case in the sense that it involved witnesses from overseas.

‘The deceased had been domiciled and resident in Jamaica for many years and much of the evidence had to come from there.’

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At least one witness had to give video evidence from Jamaica, the judge said, adding that Rik, also had to fly in to give evidence.

‘I cannot say that £126,000 is disproportionate in all the circumstances,’ she said. 

‘I see a great many costs orders, some of which are positively eye-watering, and I’m afraid that this is not such a figure. Her inability to pay is irrelevant to the question whether this costs order should be made.’

Herbert’s English estate mainly consisted of two neighbouring properties in Peak Hill, Sydenham, jointly valued at around £900,000, with more property forming his Jamaican estate.

In her bid to claim ‘reasonable provision’ from his fortune, Sarah was asked to prove that Herbert’s legal permanent home was London, not Jamaica.

Herbert moved the family to Jamaica in 1983, with Dorothy moving back to London in 1996, after which Herbert never visited England again.

A judge ruled that Herbert was domiciled in Jamaica at the time of his death. 

During the case last year, Rik was asked by Sarah’s barrister, Oliver Ingham, about his father’s relationship with Sarah.

‘It’s not correct that after leaving Jamaica to come to the UK for college she was estranged from Herbert or that she cut off relations with him,’ Mr Ingham put to him.

‘That’s what he told me,’ Rik replied, also claiming that a family friend with whom Sarah was lodging had called Herbert to ‘complain to my father about her behaviour’.

‘On his next trip to the UK, he confronted her about it and an argument ensued. My father told me that she declared she wanted nothing more to do with him and he said “are you sure that’s what you want because if we’re done we’re done”,’ he said. 

Outside court last year, Sarah said she was living ‘on the breadline’ and that any cash from her father’s estate could transform her life.

‘I am hurt by the whole thing and I’ve lost my whole family,’ she said. 

‘My dad died, but on the day he died I didn’t think I would end up being in the position I am today, going through all this heartache.

‘I don’t have a step-mother anymore. This money would make a great difference in my life, I am on the breadline right now.’

Rik co-wrote the much-loved 2001 UK number one with Shaggy and sang the main vocals on the track, which went beyond one billion plays on Spotify and had sold nearly 1.5million discs by 2017. 

In interviews, Rik, who grew up in London and rural Jamaica, has explained how his love of music was sparked by hearing his parents sing, naming his dad as an inspiration and a ‘big reggae fan’.

He has said he never gets tired of playing ‘It Wasn’t Me,’ which brought about a major life change for him.

‘I was finally able to silence the detractors who thought I was wasting my life on this music nonsense and I also made my parents very proud,’ he told the Jamaica Observer in 2023.

‘I was able to travel the world and see places it’s doubtful I would’ve seen otherwise.

‘Over two decades later, I still get recognised [and] can’t count the number of pictures I’ve taken and autographs I’ve signed for the nicest strangers you could ever meet. It’s allowed me to basically retire and focus entirely on raising my beautiful family. Eternally grateful for that.’