Caring For Parrot Costs £300,000 in Will

Three siblings have launched a legal fight to win back their inheritance after their stepmother cut them out of her £300,000 will - so her biological son could care for her parrot after she died. 

Sixty two year-old train driver Ian McLean and his two siblings were cut out when their dead father's second wife changed her will in 2019 to leave all the couple's wealth to their son, Brett McLean.

In 2017 Reginald and Maureen McLean made wills splitting all their wealth four ways between their son Brett, who goes by the title Lord of Hastings, and his step-siblings from Reginald's first marriage: Ian, Sean, and their sister Lorraine Pomeroy.  

Reginald believed there was "no way" she would cut out her stepchildren after he died, and had "trusted his wife implicitly." However, Maureen changed her will following his death, leaving everything to her son Brett, who describes himself online as "chairman, consultant, patron, trustee and president of national, regional and local business, charitable and voluntary organisations".

48-year-old Brett McLean was sued by his stepsiblings last year in a bid to force him to split the inheritance between the four of them. Brett, however, claimed his mother left her house in St Leonards, East Sussex, to him primarily so that he could "continue to provide care for her green Amazonian orange winged parrot". 

At Central London County Court Recorder Graeme Robertson handed victory to Brett, ruling that, while Maureen "may have been morally bound" not to cut out her stepchildren after her husband's death, she was not legally bound. That finding is now being challenged on appeal at the High Court by Brett's stepsiblings.