A HAMPSHIRE businessman has been awarded a large slice of his father's £100m fortune after winning a bitter court battle with his "ruthless" sister.

Southampton property tycoon Kevin Reeves had four children but left 80 per cent of his wealth to his daughter Louise, 35, when he died aged 71 in 2019.

His second son, Bill Reeves, 47, claimed Louise had "coerced" their father into leaving him almost nothing in a will made in 2014.

Now a judge has found that Louise probably "engineered" the will and had failed to prove that Kevin knew and approved of its contents.

It means Bill will inherit about £27m of his father's fortune, left to him in an earlier will drawn up in 2012.

Kevin had four children - Bill and Louise, their elder brother Mark and their half-sister Lisa Murray.

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In the 2012 will Kevin planned to give 10 per cent shares of his fortune to Mark's two children, Ryan and Ria, with the remaining 80 per cent split equally between Bill, Louise and Lisa.

But in 2014 he signed a new will, leaving Bill only about £200,000 of personal effects, with the rest split between his two daughters.

It meant Louise would walk away with a vast personal fortune of up to £80m, plus land and her father's Rolls Royce Phantom.

Bill, who lives in the New Forest, challenged the validity of the 2014 will in a case heard at London's High Court.

His barrister, Constance McDonnell QC, argued that Louise had dominated her father, with whom she was living at the time. He eventually gave in and agreed to leave her the £80m, she said.

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Ms McDonnell said Louise had shown herself in the witness box to be a "capable manipulator" and "ruthless streak".

The judge, Mr Justice Green, rejected Bill's claim that Louise had "unduly influenced" their father. But he added: "She knew full well what was in her father's will and likely engineered it so she would get the bulk of his estate."

Speaking after the case Mike Karia, Solicitor-Advocate at LLP Solicitors, said: "'We are delighted to support our clients to uncover the truth and access justice."

Bill added: "This was never about the money for me, it was always about the principle of the truth and what my dad would have wanted."