A tot from Marcham has inherited about three quarters of a million pounds after his father and grandfather died just months apart.

But three-year-old Rory Greenstreet will have to wait until he is 25 to get his hands on most of the money after his mother asked a High Court judge to delay the cash windfall until he was old enough.

Rory was due to receive an estimated £750,000 (after income from interest) on his 18th birthday when he was left as the sole heir to the family fortune after his father Kieran Greenstreet died of a heart attack, aged 39, in May last year.

Mr Greenstreet, an IT project manager at Vale of White Horse District Council, had inherited £514,600 when his father Edward Greenstreet, of Farm Road, Abingdon, died in October 2009.

Rory’s mother Ellen Wright, a part-time teacher, hoped to delay the payment of both inheritance and the interest until Rory was 30 but the judge ruled he could receive the interest on his 18th birthday and the full inheritance when he reached 25.

Mrs Wright, 42, told the High Court in London this week that she was concerned about the impact of such a fortune on a teenager.

She said: “I am strongly of the view that it is extremely undesirable that Rory should be entitled to income, let alone capital, as soon as he is 18.”

Mr Justice Norris agreed that unrestricted access to such a large sum would “expose Rory to significant temptation and the realistic possibility of exploitation”.

He said: “Any reasonable person would regard that as posing risks to Rory, being brought up in a family not accustomed to significant wealth, and without his father.”

But he said his ruling was a “proportionate measure” to ensure Rory is “introduced gradually to the control of his wealth”.