A British builder’s Thai lover has launched a legal battle against his two sons for half of his £400,000 fortune.
Kanokporn Nattachai, the girlfriend of Roger Burrage, has flown in from Thailand to face off against his sons Simon and David Burrage in the High Court.
The beautician, 40, said she was owed almost £200,000 by the late builder – but would accept a similar payout from his fortune, saying he promised to look after her.
Mr Burrage, who suffered from mental health issues, sadly took his own life in January 2023, aged 75, having returned to the UK 17 months earlier after spending many of his final years in Thailand.
The widower, from Surrey, had built himself a luxury three-bed seaside villa in Hua Hin on the country’s Malay Peninsula, worth up to £240,000.
He began a relationship with Miss Nattachai, 40, and she moved into his villa. It has 3,200 square metres of grounds, an outdoor pool, guesthouse and a games room, with ‘breathtaking’ mountain views, according to promotional materials.
The builder left his estate to his sons, having already given Miss Nattachai the villa – but now she wants half his £400,000 fortune, and will foot at least some of the brothers’ legal bill if she loses her case.
Mr Burrage’s sons, building surveyor Simon and carpenter David, are fighting the claim and deny their dad was in a relationship with her in his final years.
Thai beautician Kanokporn Nattachai, 40, outside the High Court after she flew in from Thailand last week to face off her boyfriend Roger Burrage’s sons to lay claim to half his estate
Late builder Roger Burrage, who died in 2023 aged 75 after sadly taking his own life, having returned to the UK 17 months prior from Thailand, where he spent much of his later years
Mr Burrage with his girlfriend Miss Nattachai, at the luxury villa in Thailand he built and which they lived in together until he returned to the UK in 2021
The pair also said he had already been generous to her, constantly giving her gifts – including their former home – and ‘financing or facilitating’ the purchase of her beauty parlour.
Widower Mr Burrage moved to Thailand from Surrey and used his construction experience to get involved in the local property business, the court heard.
His sons accepted their dad started a relationship with Miss Nattachai around 2016 and they lived together – but said the relationship ended before he moved back the UK in 2021.
After their dad’s death, his English estate went to his sons under a 2006 will – but Miss Nattachai laid claim to her boyfriend’s fortune at the High Court.
In court documents, she claimed she paid almost £200,000 to Mr Burrage before his death in loans for his business – which needed to be repaid from the estate.
But if that claim failed, she said she would accept a payout of around £200,000 from the builder’s estate, claiming his will did not leave her ‘adequate financial provision.’
Her solicitor Manoon Junchai said, in documents filed at court, that Miss Nattachai was in a relationship with Mr Burrage for ‘nearly seven years’, living with him from early 2016 until 28 August 2021.
‘Throughout’ that time, Mr Junchai said the late builder ‘financially supported the claimant’ and ‘assured the claimant that she would have an interest in his estate’.
Mr Burrage with his two sons, building surveyor Simon (left) and carpenter David (right) Burrage
The Brit gave the villa in Hua Hin, on the Malay Peninsula, to his girlfriend before he died. It has 3,200 square metres of grounds, an outdoor pool, guesthouse and a games room, with ‘breathtaking’ mountain views
Mr Burrage returned to the UK 17 months before his death while Miss Nattachai remained in Thailand.
The solicitor said at this point, the builder promised: ‘If she continued to work for their partnership business and the other business solely belonging to him, he would share enough money with her to ensure they could both enjoy the remainder of their lives together.
‘Relying on the promises of the deceased, the claimant has performed this work to her own detriment.
‘It would now be unconscionable had the deceased gone back on his word and deprived the claimant of the proprietary interest she had been led to expect.’
But the brothers’ barrister Lydia Pemberton said they deny their dad was in a relationship with Miss Nattachai in the last months of his life after he left Thailand or that they worked in partnership.
In court documents, she added: ‘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.’
Denying Miss Nattachai’s claim to be owed nearly £200,000 from the estate, Ms Pemberton said Mr Burrage had ‘no need’ to borrow from his girlfriend – and the beautician was never in a position to lend money anyway.
Simon Burrage outside High Court where he is fighting to keep the £400,000 estate his father left to him and his brother David
She said the brothers accepted their dad earlier made gifts to his girlfriend, including the villa.
Mr Burrage, the barrister said, also helped Miss Nattachai by ‘financing or facilitating the procurement of a small shop for the claimant to run beauty treatments from, which she continues to operate’.
But Ms Pemberton emphasised: ‘It is denied that the deceased was maintaining the claimant immediately before his death and denied that she is eligible to bring a claim under the 1975 Act [regarding access to a deceased’s estate by loved ones].’
She explained that Miss Nattachai saying she was financially supported by Mr Burrage does not make sense – because being able to lend him £200,000 (as the beautician said she did) suggests she already had enough to support herself.
Ms Pemberton also refused the idea that the will did not already provide enough for the beautician.
The brothers claim the villa, now Miss Nattachai’s, is worth around £240,000 – though she said it was recently valued at only around £100,000.
The lawyer also denied the beautician’s claim that she helped Mr Burrage with his business, saying he was always a sole trader.
Mr Burrage’s girlfriend (pictured) will foot at least some of his sons’ legal bill if she loses her case laying claim to half of the late builder’s estate
Ms Pemberton said: ‘The deceased personally funded the whole of the property business without any contribution from the claimant.
‘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 went from Miss Nattachai to the father-of-two came from selling 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 Burrage applied for a ‘security for costs’ order against Miss Nattachai, forcing her to pay money upfront to cover their lawyers’ bills if she loses the case.
The judge, Master Julia Clark, said she would make an order but will give the full details of it at a later date.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
