A tycoon at the centre of a notorious kidnap case 12 years ago has left more than £12 million in his will.

Desmond Cracknell, who died in April, was forced to negotiate with a kidnapper on the phone for 96 hours after his son, Victor, was snatched at gunpoint from his Surrey home in 1989.

Racehorse owner Mr Cracknell, from Henfield, received a £1 million ransom note and a chilling threat that if the money was not paid his son would be tortured, maimed and executed.

Despite being warned by kidnapper Keith Rose not to tell the police, Mr Cracknell tipped-off detectives who imposed a news blackout while they tried to track down the kidnapper and his victim.

During that time, Victor was blindfolded, handcuffed and tied to a tree with a noose around his neck. He was left near a culvert on the edge of Dartmoor.

He remained there for five terrifying days in the cold and rain before struggling free and staggering to a cottage.

Rose, who was under surveillance, was seized by armed police in Exeter and later sentenced to 15 years in jail.

An Old Bailey judge said Rose, a former employee of Mr Cracknell, was guilty of "an outrageous depravation of the dignity of another human being and one of the ugliest crimes in the criminal calendar".

Victor, who lives in Grayshott, Surrey, is one of three people granted probate after his father left estate valued at £12,522,520 to relatives.

After spending six years with American soap and detergent manufacturers Procter and Gamble, Desmond Cracknell, a former Fleet Air Arm pilot, set up his own business in 1961.

His firm, Food Brokers, offered small producers of food, drink and sweets a package of selling, distributing and marketing services.

The firm helped make household names of products like Babycham, Jolly Green Giant canned vegetables, and Tic Tac mints.

Mr Cracknell moved to Henfield in 1988 and regularly flew a Cessna aircraft out of Shoreham Airport.