EXCLUSIVE
A ‘Centrelink heiress’ who cannot inherit her late father’s fortune because she refuses to work has been embroiled in a court dispute with a cousin that prevents her from accessing her father’s $12 million inheritance.
Daily Mail Australia can reveal that private schoolgirl Clare Brown faces a new front in her war over the inheritance left by her father, wealthy stockbroker Christopher Hylton Brown.
Ms Brown, who was educated at Sydney’s elite Ascham private school, was sensationally prevented from inheriting her father’s estate after his death in January 2022, due to bizarre clauses inserted into the family trust.
Those clauses essentially stipulated that she needed to “get a job and contribute something to society,” according to members of her family. Mrs. Brown says she cannot work because she has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Mrs Brown, who was kicked out of one of her late father’s two $6 million apartments in Sydney’s exclusive Darling Point, has now become embroiled in a probate tumult that will have its first day in court next year .
His first cousin, coffee businessman Benjamin Sweeten, and his partner Elizabeth Howlatt, are listed as plaintiffs in the case, and Ms. Brown is listed as a defendant and defendant.
Sweeten’s twin brother, Jimmy, laid the dispute bare when he told A Current Affair two years ago that the obstacle to Brown inheriting his father’s estate was that he needed to have a job.
‘Centrelink heiress’ Clare Brown was kicked out of her father’s $6 million Sydney Harbor mansion for this Mount Druitt house (above) after a dispute over her late father’s will .
Jimmy and Ben Sweeten are Clare Brown’s first cousins involved in the family feud over their uncle’s $12 million inheritance, which will now be heard in the Victorian Supreme Court.
Ms. Brown is pictured above in 2022
‘One clause was to get a job, another clause was to contribute something to society. Check those two boxes and you can access all the money you want,’ he told Channel Nine.
But Mrs Brown, who says she cannot work because she has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), has questioned the fairness and legality of her father’s demands, saying getting a job is “not going to happen”.
“You have to look at my diagnosis,” said Mrs Brown, who has high-functioning autism and is an NDIS carer.
Jimmy Sweeten described the family dispute and Ms Brown’s status as a welfare recipient as “simply disgraceful”.
“Instead of accepting his dead father’s wishes, he turned around and sued his trust,” she said.
“We would like him to get a job and just contribute to society,” said Mr. Sweeten, who runs the landscaping company Showtime Lawns.
‘She doesn’t know anything about a hard day’s work.
“And to have a cousin who has millions within her reach sit and take government money every week is very embarrassing and un-Australian.”
Brown swapped this $6 million Darling Point apartment for Mount Druitt, in Sydney’s west. He has long been fighting against a clause in his father’s trust that says he must get a job.
Clare Brown grew up an only child, attended the elite Ascham private girls’ school, and traveled the world with her wealthy father while making millions on the stock market.
Mrs Brown (right) with her wife Lauren Barr. The couple, who are on welfare with multiple health problems, say they are bankrupt despite Clare’s million-dollar inheritance.
Clare Brown is an only child and, as a child, traveled the world with her rich father while he made millions in the stock market.
As an adult, she said she tried to work for Autism Australia and spent about an hour training as a barista, surviving on a $500-a-week allowance from her father.
He admitted that he had received unemployment benefits while still receiving $500 a week, but said it was out of necessity and “financial abuse.”
“I didn’t start Centrelink because I wanted to, my dad kept interrupting me,” she said.
Ms Brown ended up in a cramped Sydney rental propertyThe ‘fighting street’ suburb of Mount Druitt four years ago, when she was forced to leave her father’s $6 million apartment with stunning views of Sydney Harbour.
Ms Brown was living with her wife Lauren Barr when her father arranged for Benjamin Sweeten to move in rent-free in exchange for renovating the property.
Jimmy Sweeten claimed the couple “destroyed” the apartment, which Ms Brown denied, adding that “he is in the lap of luxury in Darling Point”. It’s infuriating.
Of the fight with his first cousins, he said: “I don’t even call them family.” We share blood and that’s it.’
Ben Sweeten is listed as a plaintiff in the impending court hearing into the $12 million estate of his late uncle, with whom Ms. Brown must work and contribute to the partnership to inherit the fortune.
Wife Lauren said Ms Brown’s late mother Catherine “would be devastated to know this happened to her own nephew”.
From the opposite side of the cousins, Jimmy Sweeten said his late uncle “would be embarrassed.”
We are at the limit of our wits. We have done nothing but love Clare.
A death notice for Christopher Hylton Brown from three years ago says he: “Died peacefully in Melbourne on 19 January 2022.
“He was much loved by his daughter Clare, his late wife Catherine, his nephew Benjamin and his partner Elizabeth.”
The succession matter is expected to go to court next year.