Self-confessed 'daddy's girl' daughter of tyre mogul with £55million fortune is 'dumbfounded' she was cut out of her late father's 'secret' will

A self-confessed 'daddy's girl' daughter is fighting in court after being left 'dumfounded' when cut out of her tycoon father's millions in a 'secret' will.

Self-made millionaire Reg Bond turned £350 into a fortune based on a rubber tyre empire before turning his hand to racehorse training and breeding, producing a string of winners, many of which bore his family name.

He died in March 2021, aged 77, and his four children - sons Graham, Charlie and Mike, and only daughter Lindsay - are now battling over the validity of his last will.

Mr Bond had given much of his fortune away before he died, but his final will, made in November 2019, handed nearly all of his remaining £12.3million to Charlie, 43, and Graham, 52.

This left older siblings Mike, 53, and 55-year-old Lindsay with just £325,000 each.

They are now fighting their two younger brothers in London's High Court, claiming their father's 2019 will was invalid because he was too ill to understand what he was signing.

Charlie's glamorous solicitor wife Kate Atkinson-Bond yesterday insisted she had no doubts about her millionaire father-in-law’s mental capacity when he left her husband and his brother £5.8million.

But Lindsay, who the court heard describes herself as a 'daddy's girl,' says she and brother Mike were 'dumbfounded' when they found out the contents of the will.

They claim there was a 'plan' to keep the making of Reg's disputed new will 'secret' from them and say the circumstances of its making were 'highly suspicious'.

But their brothers are fighting the claim, insisting their father's mind was fine and that doctors' records prove it.

They claim that there was a rift between Reg and Lindsay in his final months, accusing their sister of being 'penny pinching' and 'undermining Reg's independence'.

London's High Court heard that 'hard-nosed businessman' Reg made his own luck and turned misfortune on its head after he was blinded in one eye by a shard of flying metal, aged 22, whilst working as a mechanic.

He used his £350 compensation cash for the injury to set himself up in a car parts business alongside his father, beginning from a small garage in Pocklington, Yorkshire, in the 1960s.

That business developed into Bond International Tyres, which over the subsequent decades Reg built up, turning it into one of the UK's largest wholesalers, selling over five million tyres a year.

As his business grew, he also turned his hand to becoming a successful race horse owner and breeder.

He realised a childhood dream by buying his first horse Bond Boy in 2002, which went on to win the Steward's Cup.

He went on to produce a string of winners from his stud farm at Yapham Mill, in Pocklington, including Monsieur Bond who won the coveted Duke of York Stakes in 2004.

He also made headlines when he paid £125,000 to have his star breeding mare Forever Bond mated with unbeaten flat race legend Frankel in 2014.

But tragedy struck in 2010 when Reg was diagnosed with a brain tumour, before his wife Betty died in 2015.

The court heard he began estate planning two years later in 2017, handing over £43.45million-worth of shares in R&RC Bond Wholesale Ltd - the family company behind Bond International - equally to his four kids.

The gift amounted to 80 per cent of Mr Bond's shares in the company, and in 2017 he made a will dividing most of the rest of his fortune - amounting to £12.3m, including the rest of his shares - equally between his children too, with Charlie getting his horses.

But in 2019, two years before his death, he made a final will, handing his remaining £11million shareholding in the company to Charlie and Greg alone.

The remaining £1.3million in his estate, including the horses, was divided equally, leaving Mike and Lindsay with inheritances worth around £325,000 each and their younger brothers £5.825m each.

Lawyers for Mike and Lindsay Bond say their father 'lacked testamentary capacity' when he made his last will in November 2019, highlighting the fact he had been suffering from a brain tumour since 2010.

They want the court to overrule the 2019 will and reinstate the previous will from 2017, also alleging that his last will is 'invalid for want of knowledge and approval'.

Their barrister Penelope Reed told Mr Justice Michael Green that, as well as the brain tumour, Mr Bond suffered from a fall in his garden in 2014 which led to pneumonia and other serious complications, leaving him needing 'full-time care'.

She added: 'Reg was vulnerable and reliant on his carers.

'There is a real suspicion that what ended up in the final will did not represent his testamentary wishes. There's some considerable doubt about how well the will summary was gone through with Reg.

'There was quite clearly a plan to keep everything secret from Mike and Lindsay.

'We don't plead fraud or conspiracy. We just say that these were suspicious circumstances.

'Reg, although hard-nosed in business, was dedicated to his employees. Reg was also a family man, and was devoted to Betty and their four children, all of whom were involved in the family business from a young age.

'The purported will has the effect of cutting Mike and Lindsay, children of Reg, who had not fallen out with him, out of the family wealth, notwithstanding they had worked for (the family company) for almost all their adult lives.

'Reg had always treated his children equally. It was Charlie and Greg with whom Mike and Lindsay had fallen out at a time closely preceding the will making process.

'Charlie's suddenly entrenched animosity towards Lindsay is evident from his numerous Whatsapp exchanges to which Lindsay was oblivious, in which they would disparage and mock Lindsay, as well as Mike and his family.

'Lindsay and Mike began to suspect that they were deliberately being kept at arms' length from Reg by Charlie and the carers.

'Reg, however, had given no indication himself that he had any problems with either of them - there was no falling out between them, and they continued to visit him with their families.'

Ms Reed told how Mike and Lindsay discovered the existence of the 2019 will on April 7, 2021, and were 'dumbfounded'. 

She said the will was made 'against the backdrop of a series of complex commercial transactions' during which Mike and Lindsay sold their shares in the family business to a new company controlled by Charlie and Greg.

'The disputed documents were deliberately kept secret from Mike and Lindsay, in addition to numerous other arrangements,' said the barrister.

'Reg's voice is distinctly absent from the documentation. He was vulnerable and dependent on others to take him to the meetings, provide him with relevant documents, and manage his affairs.

'Lindsay had no inkling that she had been removed as attorney; neither she nor Mike had or any sense of a falling out with their father.'

But Clare Stanley, for Charlie and Greg, told the judge that Mr Bond's health was improving at the time before the will was signed - to the extent of wanting to get out on the road behind the wheel of a new Bentley he had bought.

She said: 'He had an active social life, was out and about, had bought a Bentley and wanted to get his driving licence back.'

She said that 'evidence of progress in his physical health' was proved by a series of videos shown to the court of Reg in the time leading up to the making of the will, showing him doing squats and other physical exercises in a gym.

He was also filmed receiving a trophy for a winning horse he had connections with and celebrating cheerfully, whilst sitting in a wheelchair.

She said: 'The documentary evidence suggests he knew he was signing a will and he knew what was in it.

'It was said on behalf of Mike and Lindsay that Reg "loved all his children equally and wanted to benefit them all equally, and there was no reason why he might want to exclude them from his will".

'Aside from the fact that Mike and Lindsay are included in the 2019 will, by the time that Reg came to make the 2019 will, he had already gifted Mike and Lindsay 40 per cent of his company and they had agreed to sell this interest for in excess of £20million.

'This litigation concerns the final 20 per cent which Reg owned, half of which Mike and Lindsay were plainly expecting to be theirs, despite them leaving the business.

'Far from excluding Mike and Lindsay, Reg made extraordinarily generous gifts to them, then acted in a rational and business-like fashion in relation to the last 20 per cent of the business he had built, deciding to give this in its entirety to his two children who were remaining in the business.'

Ms Stanley described Charlie's 'dearest wish' as being 'to help his beloved father live the life he wanted and that Reg deserved'. 

She added: 'He had given his children enormous lifetime gifts and it was Reg's time to live his best life, especially in light of his diagnosis. Any loving child would want that for their parent.'

The barrister also accused Lindsay of telling her father 'he didn't have the money to pay for carers', calling the daughter 'penny pinching'.

She added: 'Here is Reg being told he's got no money and Charlie is telling him, "No, you have an enormous amount of money".

'There was a suspicion that Lindsay was misusing Reg's money and Charlie was authorised to allow Reg to get back control of his own affairs.

'That necessarily involved removing Lindsay as sole attorney. Reg made those decisions.

'Charlie and Greg respectfully request that the court grants an order pronouncing in solemn form of law in favour of the 2019 will and 2019 codicil. These are testamentary documents which Reg did have capacity to make, and he knew and approved of the contents of them,' she concluded.

The trial, set to last about three weeks, continues.