A mother has launched a court action in a bid to overturn the will of her son who left his entire £260,000 fortune to the Salvation Army.

In a writ issued at the High Court in London, Margaret Jerram seeks to set aside her son Roger Munsey's will and uphold an earlier will he made leaving everything to her.

The writ said Roger Munsey suffered from a severe persecution complex as well as other psychological problems and an alcohol addiction but refused to seek help.

Mrs Jerram, of Cranleigh Avenue, Rottingdean, said she loaned her son money to buy various properties and that he often talked of repaying her but never did.

He was unemployed for most of his life and travelled abroad, living off rent from his flat and hand-outs from his mother.

In January last year, he went to the Philippines, and was found beside the pool by British Embassy staff talking to himself and looking extremely ill.

He had badly damaged his hotel room and was admitted to a psychiatric ward. He died there on March 7.

Mrs Jerram claimed the new will her son made on May 10, 1999, was invalid because he was not of sound mind, memory and understanding when he made it. She is asking the court to uphold a will he made on February 28, 1994.

Mrs Jerram said she helped her son buy a property in 1978 by giving him £6,800 and he lived there for ten years.

After he sold this first property, he bought another after asking his mother for a loan but soon became unhappy because he thought a lorry parked outside each morning was there to pump gas under his floorboards.

Mr Munsey, who last lived in the UK in north London, left £261,634.