THE BITTER INHERITANCE ROW FOR SIR STIRLING MOSS’S £27.8M FORTUNE
They are locked in a bitter legal battle over the £20m-plus fortune of one of Britain’s most revered sporting figures.
Now, documents have been filed to the High Court containing serious accusations in the inheritance row between the children of the late Sir Stirling Moss.
The claims have been made by his son, Stirling Elliot Moss, amid an acrimonious dispute with his half-sister Allison Bradley over the will of their respective mother and stepmother, Lady Susie Moss. She left £27.8m upon her own death having been bequeathed the bulk of her husband’s £22m estate.
The allegations – corroborating evidence for which has yet to emerge publicly – include:
- Lady Moss’s “alleged will” was “procured by undue influence and/or fraudulent calumny” by a friend and potential “beneficiary” of her estate who “poisoned” her mind against her son “in favour” of her stepdaughter.
- Lady Moss “lacked capacity to manage her affairs” after decades of “alcohol dependency and depression” that caused “damage to her brain”, “episodes of irrational anger” and “false beliefs”.
- She developed a “complex bereavement disorder” when Sir Stirling died and “would carry the urn containing his ashes with her, cradling it and on occasions dabbing his ashes behind her ears”.
- The friend would visit Lady Moss’s home during her husband’s final years, “drink” with her, “often lying in between Lady Moss and Sir Stirling on the bed, including sleeping there overnight”, and – after the latter’s death – “supply” her with alcohol despite “frequent pleas” from her son and nursing team.
- Sir Stirling had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s years before his own passing, upon which the wrong will was submitted for probate.
- The helmet he wore in his final race is also at the centre of the row after allegedly going missing.
News of the inheritance row between the children of the man widely regarded as the finest Formula One driver never to be crowned world champion first emerged in November.
That was after Bradley took her half-brother to court over what her legal claim states is her stepmother’s “last valid will”, made just over a year before the death of Lady Moss, 69, on March 18, 2023.
In that January 25, 2022 will, Lady Moss appointed Bradley and Richard Frankel – a classic-car collector and a friend of her and Sir Stirling – as trustees of a discretionary trust of her residuary estate, the beneficiaries of which included her son and stepdaughter.
Neither Bradley’s claim nor a counter-claim lodged by her half-brother – a professional chef who goes by the name Elliot Moss – specifies precisely how that estate was to be divided in the will. The latter, however, alleges it gave the trustees the power to exclude him “entirely” from any inheritance.
Both children have applied for opposing court orders over its validity, with Elliot also seeking a ruling in favour of what he argues was his mother’s last true will made almost two decades earlier on April 29, 2002.
His counter-claim states that will was accompanied by a letter of wishes declaring her residuary estate be divided 75 per cent to 25 per cent in his favour.
Bradley, Sir Stirling’s daughter from his second marriage to American public-relations executive Elaine Barbarino, has been given until January 28 to file a response to a counter-claim that Telegraph Sport has been told she plans to allege is replete with inaccuracies.
That includes regarding her relationship with her stepmother, which the counter-claim alleges was not close and was, at times, “strained” prior to Sir Stirling’s death, aged 90, on April 12, 2020.
It also claims Bradley, who it says was “brought up” by Barbarino, only visited her sick father “fewer than a dozen times” and that her half-brother had to “persuade” his mother to allow her to do so.
By contrast, Elliot and his wife, Helen, are described as having “enjoyed an extremely close relationship” with his parents at “all material times” prior to his father’s death.
But the most serious accusations are made about Frankel, 61, who was appointed an administrator of both Sir Stirling’s and Lady Moss’s estates before being replaced last year after a court granted a consent order agreed by all parties.
Elliot’s submission in the latest legal case notes Frankel “has not been joined to the proceedings”. He could not be reached for comment on the allegations against him, which have yet to be tested in court.
They include that, prior to Sir Stirling’s illness, he sought to persuade the former grand prix driver “on more than one occasion that he should divide his estate equally” between his two children.
The counter-claim also accuses him of encouraging Lady Moss to gift “her entire residuary estate” to her stepdaughter during a meeting two weeks before she signed the January 25, 2022 will, at which she was “cradling the urn containing Sir Stirling’s ashes”.
It says Frankel is “named as a beneficiary” of that will without stating what exactly he stood to inherit.
The 29-page document gives Elliot’s account of his parents’ final years during which his father died days short of their 40th wedding anniversary.
It says that Sir Stirling had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s prior to falling ill in December 2016 with influenza and later pneumonia, adding: “From at least 2018 he lacked testamentary capacity.”
It also states that Lady Moss’s “alcohol dependency and depression dated from prior to 2000, but it significantly worsened after Sir Stirling was admitted to hospital in December 2016, and then again after his death in April 2020. By 2020 Lady Moss would begin drinking early in the morning and would typically consume one to two bottles of wine and half a bottle of gin a day”.
It says that “from at least 2017”, she suffered from “impaired short-term episodic memory, false beliefs and would frequently confabulate”, from “alcohol-related mood disorder which resulted in mood swings and episodes of irrational anger”. It also says that she suffered from “episodes of hepatic encephalopathy as a result of damage to her liver, which adversely affected her cognition”.
It says that from “around late 2019”, she “struggled to deal with her financial affairs. By 2020 she rarely answered the telephone and was incapable of using her email regularly. By 2022, she was unable to use her emails at all”.
It says that Sir Stirling’s death triggered an “escalation of her depression. It caused her feelings of bitterness and a loss of trust towards others to whom she had formerly been close and whom she had trusted”, including her son and his wife.
It says that “by January 2022”, she had “withdrawn into herself completely and often did not know what day or date it was. She would forget conversations which she had had the previous week and had no idea what was going on in the world around her”.
It adds that between 2020 and 2023, she was “hospitalised on three occasions as a result of damage caused to her body by alcohol”. On the last of those occasions she was diagnosed with “delirium and hepatic encephalopathy” from which she did not recover.
Lady Moss was the younger sister of Lady Tina Green, the wife of the multi-millionaire businessman Sir Philip Green.
The counter-claim states that following Sir Stirling’s death, Lady Moss was “unwilling and unable to discuss” the administration of his estate and that Lady Green “persuaded” her to meet her own solicitors, Teacher Stern.
It goes on to chronicle what it claims were multiple lapses on the part of the law firm regarding both Sir Stirling’s and Lady Moss’s wills. This includes “incorrect” advice that caused the wrong will to be submitted for probate after the former’s death, and a failure to check whether the latter had capacity to change her own will upon being widowed.
It says Elliot also told a solicitor acting for the firm of “his concern that Lady Susie’s mental capacity was limited and that Mr Frankel was exploiting this for his own gain”. It also says that the solicitor sent an email describing the car collector’s behaviour as “all a bit dodgy”.
Teacher Stern, which represented Frankel in last year’s court proceedings, told Telegraph Sport it was “not a party” to the current case and could not comment on “any matters relating to alleged conduct as these are subject to client confidentiality and privilege”.
Last year’s proceedings concluded days before a service of thanksgiving was held at Westminster Abbey for the life and work of Sir Stirling, which was attended by both his children, the Duke of Kent, representing the King, and Prince Michael of Kent.
The service featured one of his racing helmets and his British Racing Drivers’ Club Gold Stars.
As well as his father’s fortune, Elliot’s counter-claim states Lady Moss’s 2002 letter of wishes recorded her intention to give his “10 BRDC Gold Stars” to his son, as well as the helmet he wore in the final race of his career.
It is unclear whether that helmet, which arguably saved Sir Stirling’s life in a serious crash at Goodwood that put him in a coma and paralysed him for six months down his left side, is the same as the one at his memorial.
The counter-claim states that Frankel had previously informed a Teacher Stern solicitor that Lady Moss “had looked for the helmet but could not find it”.
Both of Sir Stirling’s children were reportedly included in his own will, with his son said to have inherited £132,000 upon his death.
After Lady Moss passed away, Elliot told the Evening Standard he had yet to receive any windfall from his parents and faced selling his London restaurant, Plu, or his family home, claiming the money he had was tied up with lawyers who “earn more than chefs”.
The restaurant shut in 2024, with the 45-year-old blaming tough trading conditions and being overlooked for a Michelin star.
Sir Stirling won 16 of the 66 F1 races he competed in from 1951 to 1961, and became the first British driver to win a home grand prix in 1955 at Aintree.
Four times a runner-up in the F1 drivers’ championship, he was named BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 1961. His will made headlines when details of it emerged almost a year after his death.
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