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Richard Cousins, the former chief executive of catering giant Compass, has left most of his fortune to Oxfam.

Mr Cousins, who lived in south London, died in a plane crash on New Year's Eve in Sydney along with his two sons, his fiancee and her daughter.

An Oxfam spokesman confirmed that a substantial amount of money has been left to the charity in his will.

He declined to confirm newspaper reports that the amount was in excess of £40m.

The Sun reported that Mr Cousins' brothers, Simon and Andrew, both get £1m.

The Compass chief reportedly drew up a new will a year before the crash, stipulating his fortune should go to the charity in the unlikely event of his sons dying along with him.

Oxfam has almost 10,000 staff working in more than 90 countries, but its reputation took a battering earlier this year when it was revealed workers had engaged in sexual misconduct while working in Haiti in 2010.

Recently, the charity's managers warned they needed to cut jobs and find £16m in savings after donations fell in the wake of the scandal.

Mr Cousins, 58, his sons Edward, 23 and William, 25, as well as Emma Bowden and her daughter Heather, 11, died when the plane crashed into a river.

The family died from a combination of multiple injuries and drowning, an inquest heard.

The crash, which also killed Sydney-based pilot Gareth Morgan, 44, happened on the Hawkesbury River, near Cowan - about 40km north of Sydney.