LONDON: Heather Mills was a less than candid court witness whose $250 million divorce claim was exorbitant, a judge said in his ruling on her divorce from Paul McCartney.

The judgment by Hugh Bennett was released on Tuesday, after a court rejected Mills’ attempt to block publication.

On Monday, Bennett awarded Mills a $48.6 million divorce settlement after her four-year marriage to the former Beatle.

Mills had sought almost $250 million, while McCartney had offered $31.6 million, including Mills’ own assets.

But in his ruling the judge said Mills’ claim “is and was unreasonable, indeed exorbitant”.

He also said Mills’ evidence was “not just inconsistent and inaccurate but also less than candid. Overall she was a less than impressive witness”.McCartney’s lawyers did not object to publication of the judgment, but Mills claimed details in the ruling could compromise the security of her four-year-old daughter, Beatrice.

“Miss Mills believes her daughter will be put in real danger. It is most disturbing,” said lawyer David Rosen, who represented Mills in court. Mills did not attend the hearing.

She walked away from court with a settlement worth about $34,000 for every day of her four-year marriage to the former Beatle. But it was only a fifth of what she had sought and a fraction of the former Beatle’s $800 million fortune.

Mills, 40, declared that she was “very, very, very pleased” with the payout.

The settlement included a lump sum of $33 million, plus the assets Mills currently holds worth $15.6 million.

Some legal experts were surprised the former model, who has been widely portrayed in the British media as a gold-digger, did not get more.

“In the scheme of things, it’s quite surprisingly low,” said Patricia Hollings, a divorce specialist with London law firm Finers Stephens Innocent. “It is only offering her about 6 per cent of his assets. In terms of high-wealth cases it’s very low.”

McCartney, 65, left after Monday’s ruling without comment. But Mills emerged from the three-hour private hearing for an impromptu news conference on the courthouse steps railing against McCartney’s lawyer, accusing her ex of underestimating his wealth and declaring the settlement had secured her future and that of 4-year-old Beatrice.

“All of you that have researched know that it was always going to be a figure between 20 and 30 million” pounds, said a visibly agitated Mills. “Paul was offering a lot less than that ... So we’re very, very, very pleased.”

Mills criticised McCartney’s attorney Fiona Shackleton, who is well known for representing Prince Charles in his divorce from Princess Diana.

“She has called me many, many names before even meeting me when I was in a wheelchair,” said Mills, whose own legal team, in an ironic twist, was led by Princess Diana’s divorce lawyer until she fired it in November.

Shackleton emerged from court on Monday with a wet head, reportedly from a glass of water that Mills dumped on her. Mills told reporters that Shackleton had been “baptized in court”. McCartney’s spokespeople declined to comment.

McCartney also was ordered to pay $70,000 a year for his daughter, and to pay for the child’s nanny and school fees. Mills said that was a paltry amount. “She’s obviously meant to travel B class while her father travels A class,” she said.

The settlement does not rank with the most expensive celebrity divorces. Basketball star Michael Jordan and singer-songwriter Neil Diamond both had to pay out about $150 million to settle their divorces, according to Forbes magazine.

British divorce settlements are generally lower than US ones. But Mills’ jackpot is only about half of the biggest contested divorce settlement in British history $90 million at the time that insurance tycoon John Charman was ordered to pay his ex-wife in 2006.

McCartney and Mills married at an Irish castle in June 2002, four years after the death from cancer of McCartney’s first wife, Linda.

The music legend and the charity campaigner —former model whose left leg was amputated below the knee after a 1993 motorcycle accident — were instant tabloid fodder.

Even as they wed, there were rumours that the former Beatle’s adult children, who include the fashion designer Stella McCartney, disapproved of their new stepmother.

The couple insisted they were in love, and McCartney said they had not signed a prenuptial agreement.—AP