Alastair Bowerman, 57, went to court after being left a one-third share of the £230,000 cash his parents left in their wills, whilst brother Ben Bowerman, 60, got cash and their shares in the 460-acre family farm on Dorset’s Isle of Purbeck, which includes a Grade-I listed medieval manor house and is home to a lucrative mineral water spring.

Cider compnay boss Alastair Bowerman outside London’s High Court during will dispute with his brothers. (Image: Champion News Service Ltd)

Jean and John Bowerman, the brother’s parents, had originally made wills in 1988, splitting their cash between Alastair and third brother David, to balance out the fact that Ben was to be handed the family farm business at Godlingston Manor, near Swanage.

John’s estate was at the time expected to be boosted by inheritance money from his own father which he stipulated should also be distributed in a way that favoured Alastair and David.

The farm is home to a natural mineral water spring exploited through a company which Ben runs, and at one point was the third biggest supplier of water cooler bottles in the country.

But in 1999, Jean and John both made new wills, handing Ben an equal share of their cash and any cash from John’s father, alongside their remaining shares of the farm business, having already handed him most of it a year earlier.

Following the death of John in 2004 and Jean in 2012, it became clear that the anticipated inheritance from John’s father had not gone into their estates, leaving them containing just £230,000 together.

Mineral water boss and farmer Ben Bowerman outside London’s High Court during will dispute with his brother. (Image: Champion News Service Ltd)

Alastair – whose Dorset Cider company folded the year after his mum’s death – became more and more disgruntled over the years about the division of his parents’ wealth, telling lawyers that he “did not agree with the gift of the farm business” to Ben making complaints about “incorrect happenings” and suspecting a “conspiracy”.

Relations became so bad between the two brothers that in 2015 Alastair was handed a criminal conviction for arson and hit with a restraining order after “setting fire to Ben’s car.”

He later alleged that Ben “had committed fraud ….and corruption on a massive scale,” in an email to lawyers.

Last year, he went to London’s High Court and, representing himself in a four-day trial staring in April, sued his two brothers in their roles as executors of their parents’ wills, along with the professional administrator of Jean’s estate, claiming that his dad’s 1999 will was invalid for lack of knowledge and approval and challenging his mum’s on grounds of undue influence by Ben.

But despite succeeding in his bid to convince Master Julia Clark that his father was too ill to properly understand what he was doing when he changed his will in 1999, Alastair lost his case, having delayed too long before bringing the challenge. His claims regarding his mum’s will were dismissed.

David Bowerman outside London’s High Court during will dispute with his brother. (Image: Champion News Service Ltd)

Now he has been handed an enormous legal costs bill for the action – wiping out his inheritance many times over – with Ben’s lawyers demanding over £777,000, whilst his brother David and the administrator of Jean’s estate are claiming around another £100,000 between them.

The court heard that the 460-acre Godlingston Manor Farm stands on National Trust land within a protected area of outstanding natural beauty, on the Isle of Purbeck, Dorset.

The farm includes a Grade-I listed manor house, with parts dating from 1166, and a lucrative natural mineral water spring.

At a costs hearing last week, the judge went on to order Alastair to pay the lawyers’ bills for the case put forward by Ben, his brother David – who works as a bespoke clock and furniture maker – and the professional administrator, with £475,000 up front towards an estimated total of around £875,000.

The court was told that the “overall costs to be paid will exceed the sums in the estate”.

Alastair did not attend court for the costs hearing and was not represented.