A millionaire tire tycoon was so confused he ‘couldn’t remember what he had for lunch’ every day as he cut two of his children out of his £55million will, a learned the High Court.
Reg Bond died in March 2021, aged 77, and having already handed over a large part of his fortune, handed his remaining £12.3 million to the two youngest of his four children.
But older brother and sister Mike, 52, and Lindsay, 55, – who were left with £325,000 each – are contesting the will and claiming he was too ill to understand what he was like at the time of sign it in November 2019.
Mike and Lindsay are now fighting their two younger brothers Charlie, 43, and Graham, 52, in the High Court, claiming their father’s final will was invalid because he was too ill to understand what he was signing.
Giving evidence, Mike’s wife Rebecca told the court that following a brain tumor diagnosis in 2010, Reg was in severe mental decline and “couldn’t tell night from day” or remembering what he ate for lunch that day.
Reg Bond (left) died in March 2021, aged 77. His children are now engaged in a bitter legal battle over his final will.
Charlie Bond, pictured with his wife Katie Atkinson-Bond, received his father’s remaining £12.3 million with his brother Graham
But older siblings Mike Bond (pictured) and Lindsay are fighting their two younger brothers in the High Court after receiving just £325,000 each from the will.
Reg also lost his wife Betty in 2015 after suffering a serious fall in his garden the previous year.
Afterward, he was so confused that he “couldn’t tell night from day,” Rebecca testified.
She added: “Since the start of 2019, if you asked him, Reg would be able to remember anyone from the past, but he couldn’t remember what he ate that day.”
But Charlie and Greg’s lawyers deny the claims and say Reg’s health was improving at the time he wrote his will – and he was even considering getting behind the wheel of his new Bentley.
Their lawyer, Clare Stanley KC, argued to Rebecca that – because she would benefit if her husband won the inheritance battle – she had created a false version of Reg’s mental abilities.
“I’m suggesting that you’re trying to paint a picture because you’re helping Mike win this case, but that’s not the truth, is it,” she said. Rebecca replied, “That’s not right. »
For Mike and Lindsay, Penelope Reed KC told the judge the siblings were “stunned” when they learned of the will, and Mike’s wife Rebecca added yesterday that it had been a ” very big shock.”
“I always thought everything would be shared among his four children, because he loved them all equally,” she told the judge.
Challenging the 2019 will, Mike and Lindsay claim their father “lacked testamentary capacity” when he made the decision to deprive them of most of his remaining fortune.
They claim the will is “invalid for lack of knowledge and approval” and want the court to annul it and reinstate the previous 2017 will.
Reg Bond’s doctor (pictured) said he was in complete control of his mind when he handed over the majority of his fortune to just two of his children.
Their lawyer, Ms Reed, told the judge that in addition to his brain tumor, Reg suffered from a fall in his garden in 2014, which led to pneumonia and other serious complications, leaving him requiring “care full time “.
“Reg was vulnerable and dependent on his carers,” she said. “There is a real suspicion that what ended up in the final will did not correspond to his testamentary wishes.”
But yesterday Charlie and Greg’s lawyer Ms Stanley told the court that in fact Reg had already been “generous” in handing over most of his fortune to his children.
Although they all worked in the family business, he considered Greg and Charlie “the foundation of the business,” she added.
Lindsay had been “horrible” to Reg’s carers and, cross-examining Mike’s daughter Chantelle Bond on the witness stand, alleged that Chantelle had “treated” Reg badly.
She explained that the reason he couldn’t tell night from day was that, while caring for him after his fall, she had kept his bedroom curtains closed.
In evidence, Chantelle, 28, told the court that from 2015 she took on a caring role towards her grandfather, looking after his food, shopping and keeping him company.
But Ms Stanley suggested Chantelle and her family had not treated Reg well, including giving him McDonald’s takeaways when he was ill and needed to get better.
“You don’t care how he felt,” the lawyer said. “You fed him trash. You kept the curtains closed so he wouldn’t know if it was night or day.
“You treated him like a child by putting on children’s television. You treated him with contempt.
But Chantelle denied the allegations, responding “absolutely not” and saying she only gave her grandfather McDonald’s when asked.
“Lindsay gave me money to go shopping,” she told the judge. “From the time my grandmother was alive, she would tell me what to buy for the week.
“As for takeaways and McDonald’s, the only time they were bought for my grandfather was if my grandmother told you she wanted one and she wanted one for him too.”
Earlier in the trial, the judge heard that Reg, the “uncompromising businessman”, turned his luck around after being blinded in one eye by a flying shard of metal, aged 22, while he worked as a mechanic.
He used his £350 compensation for the injury to establish himself in a car parts business with his father, starting with a small garage in Pocklington, Yorkshire, in the 1960s.
This business became Bond International Tyres, which Reg grew over the following decades, becoming one of the UK’s largest wholesalers, selling over five million tires a year.
As his business grew, he also moved into the horse racing industry, fulfilling a childhood dream by purchasing his first horse, Bond Boy, in 2002, who went on to win the Steward’s Cup.
He also made headlines when he paid £125,000 for his star breeding mare, Forever Bond, to be bred to undefeated flat legend Frankel in 2014.
But tragedy struck in 2010 when Reg was diagnosed with a brain tumor and his wife, Betty, died in 2015.
The court heard that Reg began estate planning in 2017, handing over a total of £43.45 million worth of shares in R&RC Bond Wholesale Ltd – the family company behind Bond International – in equal shares to his four children.
The donation amounted to 80% of Reg’s shares in the company, and in 2017 he made a will sharing most of the rest of his fortune – amounting to £12.3 million, including the rest of his actions – also between his children, with Charlie. get his horses back.
But in 2019, two years before his death, he made his final will, leaving his remaining £11million stake in the business to Charlie and Greg alone.
The remaining £1.3 million of his estate, including horses, was divided equally, leaving Mike and Lindsay with inheritances worth around £325,000 each and their younger brothers £5.825 million. of pounds sterling each.
Mike and Lindsay claim there was a ‘plan’ to keep the making of Reg’s contested new will ‘secret’ and claim the circumstances of its making were ‘highly suspect’, although they do not allege fraud .
Their brothers are fighting the claim, insisting that medical records prove their father’s mind was fine and that a rift between Lindsay and Reg had opened in his final months.
Videos of Reg in the period before he made the 2019 will showed him doing squats and other physical exercises in a gym, the court heard.
He was also filmed receiving a trophy for a winning horse he had a connection with and happily celebrating it, while sitting in a wheelchair.
The trial, which has now entered its third week of hearings, continues.
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