A twice bankrupted self-styled "Lord" who claims he is the illegitimate son of Prince Philip has launched legal action to get part of his late aunt's $7 million estate.
There was no mention of an Andrew, let alone "Lord Andrew Battenberg", in the death notice of Blanche Millie Condon of Kensington, which appeared in The Sydney Morning Herald in December 2016. Instead, the notice of the 86-year-old's death read: "Beloved wife of James (deceased). Dear sister of Ruth and Harold (deceased). Much loved aunt of Robyn, Bruce, Merryn, Wayne and David."
!["Lord Andrew Battenberg", who claims to be Prince Philip's love child.](http://web.archive.org./web/20171230150529im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/h/0/b/1/8/j/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.h0aik2.png/1514582686626.jpg)
Mrs Condon's brother Harold Lee, a banker, and his wife, Ailsa, had adopted Andrew from Hornsby Hospital in August 1962. He has since claimed that when he was 21 a mysterious letter arrived from England, containing the Barony of Craigstown and access to an endowment in the form of the Battenberg Trust 103.
In reality, Andrew Lee purchased the title himself and began styling himself as Lord Andrew of Craigstown. He then changed his name to Lord Andrew Battenberg and, while bankrupted in Australia for not paying the costs of a failed lawsuit against his previous solicitors, he moved to Scotland in 2004 where he changed his name again to Lord Leitrim.
![Prince Philip.](http://web.archive.org./web/20171230150529im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/1/3/g/x/7/6/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.h0aik2.png/1514582686626.jpg)
Over the years, he has repeatedly suggested that his real father is the Duke of Edinburgh. Just how Prince Philip's "love child" came to be born in Hornsby Hospital has never been explained by Mr Battenberg.
Mr Lee/Lord Battenberg/Lord Leitrim has launched legal action against his cousins Bruce Phillips, a partner at KPMG, and Mr Phillips' sister, Ruth Price, who are executors of Mrs Condon's estate, which is valued in excess of $7 million.
There was no mention made of Battenberg in his aunt's will, dated September 2016. Mr Battenberg claims that there was a sharp decline in his aunt's health around that time and she did not have the mental capacity to make the will.
Instead, Mr Battenberg produced a typed document dated September 2006, which purports to be an "irrevocable agreement" made between his late aunt and her late sister-in-law Ailsa Lee (Mr Battenberg's adoptive mother).
According to this document, his aunt wanted to leave Mr Battenberg a fifth of her estate as "compensation" to him over his alleged mistreatment by his adoptive father Harold and Mrs Condon's husband.
Lord Battenberg's long-time companion, horticulturalist Rudi Fabian, provided the court with an affidavit in which Mr Fabian claimed to have witnessed the preparation and execution of this document, the original of which cannot be located.
However, the executors told the court that the signature on this document was markedly different to their aunt's signature on her 2016 will and on earlier wills.
Because Mr Battenberg has no assets in Australia, Mr Phillips and Mrs Price sought a "security for costs" order which means that Mr Battenberg would have to lodge funds with the court to pay their costs in the event he loses the case.
Mr Battenberg has a history of failed litigation. After he was thrown out of Sydney's upmarket Union Club for failing to pay the fees, he sued the club – unsuccessfully – for discrimination including "refusing to use his title and making impertinent inquiries concerning his sexual preferences". In 2004 the Administrative Decisions Tribunal held that "the applicant presented as an unreliable witness whose evidence could not be accepted except when not disputed or independently corroborated".
He was bankrupted in 2005 after he failed to pay the costs of his unsuccessful legal action against his former solicitors, Michel Sillar. In 2003 he sued the law firm over a failed property deal in the Blue Mountains which had led to his bankruptcy. In that case Justice Michael Grove found that Mr Battenberg was "unreliable and possibly suffering from delusions" and that there were instances "of attempted fabrication" by him "to support his contentions" that his solicitors were to blame for his "financial woes".
The judge also made reference to Mr Battenberg receiving some mysterious funds that enabled him to annul his bankruptcy. The "cryptic content of exhibit C", namely a 2002 letter from a firm of English solicitors addressed to Rudi Fabian, referred to Mr Battenberg having access "to the benefit of a trust", the judge noted.
If there was a trust, it was not always flush with funds. For several years, Mr Battenberg tried to avoid his second stint of bankruptcy by telling the Federal Court of Australia that he was a British resident. At the same time, Mr Battenberg was telling a Scottish court that because he lived in Australia it did not have the jurisdiction to hear the case of his former chauffeur who was suing over unpaid wages.
In 2007 Justice Margaret Stone of the Federal Court found Mr Battenberg to be an unreliable witness who was "prepared to say whatever he thinks best suits his interests".
Justice Stone noted in her judgement that his decision to change his name to Lord Battenberg "is in one sense a harmless vanity". However, she noted that his former solicitors, who were trying to bankrupt him over the $200,000 he owed them, submitted that his name change was relevant to his credibility as "it shows that he lives in a fantasy world and that his evidence is tailored to bolster that fantasy and cannot be believed".
Mr Battenberg spent eight years in bankruptcy, as he failed to lodge a statement of affairs until 2010. He was discharged from bankruptcy in 2013.
It is not known whether the recent death of Mr Fabian, Mr Battenberg's long-term companion and key witness in the matter of his aunt's estate, will affect the continuance of the matter.
"Viewed in terms of risk management, there is, in my opinion, an appreciable risk that the case sought to be made by the plaintiff (with respect to both the 2006 document and the 2016 will) will fail" and that there was a risk to Mr Battenberg of "an adverse costs order", said Justice Geoff Lindsay of the NSW Supreme Court in his judgment handed down on December 21.
Justice Lindsay ordered that "no later than 28 February 2018, the plaintiff [Mr Battenberg] give security in the sum of $75,000 for the defendants' costs of the proceedings".