Heiress loses €17bn battle

FRANCE’S richest woman has lost control of her €17 billion fortune as a judge ruled Lilian Bettencourt was suffering from dementia and could no longer look after her own affairs.

Just days before her 89th birthday she was placed under the tutelle – or guardianship – of family members in a bid to protect her.

Mme Bettencourt, who is the largest shareholder in L’Oréal, had been diagnosed with dementia and Alzheimer's. Her 25-year-old grandson was given control of her personal care and her daughter, Françoise Bettencourt- Meyers, and two other grandsons were put in control of her financial affairs.

The verdict – which has been challenged by Mme Bettencourt’s lawyers who said they would appeal as it was a “deep injustice” with “manifest legal errors” – may bring an end to three years of family in-fighting.

Ms Bettencourt-Meyers launched the tutelle bid to protect her mother from people “exploiting” her mental decline. It followed a legal action against a society photographer who she accused of abusing her mother's mental state to pocket more than a billion euros in art and financial benefits.

Last December she and her mother were reconciled and Mme Bettencourt severed connection with the photographer and wrote him out of her will, where he had stood to gain several hundred million.

However, the rift opened again when Ms Bettencourt-Meyers accused the lawyer looking after her mother of a conflict of interest after investing €170 million in another client’s firm.

Ms Bettencourt-Meyers said the ruling would have no impact on the running of L’Oréal.