In 1883, a man in my wife's tree left his family in Young NSW, and married in Adelaide SA, claiming he was a widower. In those days, a declaration was accepted, but I would be surprised if he got away with it in the 20th c. "A but to the but": There was a account in the Readers Digest about a scam in England. The con man looked up deceased estates with unclaimed money. He went to the Registry and applied for a certificate appointing him Executor of the estate. He then got a grant of probate. His solicitor denied all knowledge of wrongdoing, but after the first one, he should have been suspicious. His partnership expelled him. But the real cause was the Registry acting on no evidence of the applicant's title, a standard practice back then. Maybe they merely said, "It's not cricket"?