British builder’s Thai ‘girlfriend’ fights his sons for £400k fortune

The £400,000 fortune of a British builder is at the centre of an international court fight between his two sons and his Thai former girlfriend.

Roger Burrage spent many of his final years in Thailand, where he built himself a luxury three-bed villa on the Malay Peninsula worth up to £240,000, before dying in the UK in 2023.

While in Thailand, he began a relationship with Kanokporn Nattachai, 40, a local beautician, and she moved into his villa in Hua Hin, which has over 3,000 square metres of grounds, an outdoor pool, guest house and games room, with “breathtaking” mountain views.

On his death aged 75, Mr Burrage left his estate to his two sons, Simon and David Burrage, having already given Ms Nattachai the villa where they had lived together.

But Ms Nattachai last week flew in from Thailand to face off against his two sons in London’s High Court, laying claim to half of his estate, which has been valued at about £400,000.

She claims she was owed almost £200,000 by Burrage, but is alternatively asking for a similar payout from his fortune, saying he had promised to look after her.

Simon, a building surveyor, and David, a carpenter, are fighting the claim and deny that their father and Ms Nattachai were in a relationship in his final years.

The pair also say he had already been generous to her, giving her gifts during his life, including their former home and “financing or facilitating” the purchase of the shop from which she provides beauty treatments.

The court heard that Burrage, a widower, had moved to Thailand from his Surrey home and, using his experience from the construction trade, became involved in the local property business.

His sons accept that their father formed a relationship with Ms Nattachai in about 2016 and they lived together, but claim the relationship ended before he returned to the UK in 2021.

After suffering with mental health issues, he took his own life in January 2023.

Following his death, with his English estate going to his sons under a 2006 will, Ms Nattachai began a multi-pronged claim at the High Court.

Partnership questioned

In court documents, she claims almost £200,000 in payments she made to Mr Burrage before his death were loans for his business and need to be repaid from the estate.

If she fails in that claim, she is fighting for a payout of about £200,000 from his estate, claiming that his will did not leave her “adequate financial provision”.

Lydia Pemberton, the barrister for the brothers, said they deny that their father was in a loving relationship with Ms Nattachai after he left Thailand or that they had worked in partnership together.

“They deny that the relationship subsisted as a romantic relationship after the deceased left Thailand in August 2021,” she said in court documents.

“They aver that the deceased was particularly vulnerable and in poor mental health in the years shortly before his death, the deceased ultimately then taking his own life.

“Further, they aver that the claimant played on the deceased’s vulnerabilities by pestering him to return to Thailand.

“They deny that the nature of the claimant’s relationship with the deceased during the last 17 months of his life was anything other than a friendship.”

Denying Ms Nattachai’s claim to be owed nearly £200,00 from the estate, Ms Pemberton said Mr Burrage had “no need” to borrow from Ms Nattachai and that she was never in any position to lend money.

She also denied that Mr Burrage had been financially supporting Ms Nattachai during the months before he died, although he had earlier made gifts, including the villa they had shared in Thailand.

Their father had also helped Ms Nattachai by “financing or facilitating the procurement of a small shop for the claimant to run beauty treatments from, which she continues to operate”.

The brothers claim the villa is worth about £240,000, although Ms Nattachai says it has recently been valued at only around £100,000.

She also denied Ms Nattachai’s claim that she had been involved in business with Burrage, who she said had always worked as a sole trader.

“The deceased personally funded the whole of the property business without any contribution from the claimant,” she said.

“The last development undertaken by the property business was completed prior to the deceased’s relationship with the claimant and the majority of the developed properties sold before their relationship commenced, so she could not have been involved in the property business as she alleges.”

Any money which passed from Ms Nattachai to their father had represented proceeds of sale of properties, which she had held for him as his nominee due to Thai property ownership rules.

The case reached court last week after Simon and David applied for a “security for costs” order against Ms Nattachai, forcing her to pay money up front to cover their lawyers’ bills if she loses the whole case.

The judge, Master Julia Clark, said she would be making an order, but will give the full details of it at a later date.

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