A HAMPSHIRE family is at war over after an elderly mother accused her own son of breaking his promise to look after her.

The Kirby family is on course for a High Court battle after 81-year-old Brenda Kirby said her son Roger Kirby and wife Claire failed to care for her in her old age.

The pensioner has now lodged a writ with the court seeking damages for the way she was treated.

In the writ the widow claims she sold her former Portchester home for £110,000. She then gave the cash to her son and his wife to buy a home for all three of them in sunsoaked Lanzarote.

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Mrs Kirby says the couple then refused to give her a key to the home they shared, and they forced her to keep food in her wardrobe.

She claims she had to go in and out of the house through the electric garage doors, as she was not given a key.

The pensioner says she was also banned from using the washing machine and had to do her washing by hand, and was not welcomed into the shared parts of the house, especially the kitchen and lounge.

She was not given food, although she did have a four-ring hob, and had to store food in her wardrobe, states the writ.

Mrs Kirby also claims her son verbally abused her and her daughter- in-law threw a chair at her.

She left the foreign house in November 2007 and returned to the UK, where she now lives in a rented sheltered flat in Portsmouth.

Her son and his wife sold their Lanzarote home and paid £177,000 for their current home in The Crossway, Fareham.

The writ states Mrs Kirby bowed to their undue influence and trusted them, but they misrepresented the quality of accommodation and care she would receive.

It adds that she had only agreed to transfer the money she got from selling her home in the UK after they assured her she would be cared for in her old age.

Mrs Kirby is seeking a seeking a declaration that she was induced to enter the contract through their undue influence, rescission of the contract, and damages.