A son who chose to contest a £101,000 bingo jackpot win has been left with a £55,000 legal bill and the prospect of having to sell his house. Malcolm Beresford who was claiming the money from his mother’s friend was told by Circuit Judge Robin Barratt QC "the case should never have appeared in a court of law".

Mr Beresford had made the claim that his mother, Shelagh, 79 and Sally Bennett, 90 had agreed to split all their bingo win equally. The main argument for his case was a Gala Bingo press release which was used in the Worthing Herald for an article in September, 2006.

The article claimed Sally promised to "stick to an agreement" to split the money with her friend Shelagh. Therefore, Mr Beresford claimed that he was entitled to half of Sally’s national bingo winning of £101,000 won on the 30th August 2006 at the Rowlands Road, Gala Bingo club in Worthing.

The two ladies had been bingo buddies for severn years and lived together in warden-assisted flats not far from the bingo club. Both ladies died within a month of each other in March and April 2007 within 8 months of the jackpot win.

The Judge summed up the case, saying that he placed greater faith in the evidence provided by Sally Bennett’s family who were in more regular contact with the ladies than Mr Beresford was.

He acknowledged the article content in that there clearly was an arrangement to share money but that this was informal and relied on the pair sharing money as and when they needed it. Mrs Bennett had offered some of the money to Shelagh, who had refused and insisted that it be spent on Sally's grandchildren.

The Judge added: "I conclude this was a domestic arrangement between these two particular parties, which was about treating each other with the winnings of the pastime and activity they were engaged with and enjoyed.

"This was not an arrangement that should ever have come to a court of law."

Following the court ruling, Mr Beresford, from Stockport, commented: "I'm devastated.”I'm now going to have to sell my house.

"I don't understand why the judge didn't mention the newspaper article – it was there in black and white."

Mr Beresford now has to pay £30,000 of the defendant’s legal bill which amounted to around £56,000. He has also incurred estimated expenses of around £25,000 in bringing this matter to court.