Judge ruled in her favour even though he paid deposit and mortgage costs

She claimed that she had right to their £650,000 home in Sawbridgeworth

Met Greta Cerniauskaite when she was cleaner at National Portrait Gallery

John Hoggins, 62, met 47-year-old Greta Cerniauskaite (pictured) when she was a cleaner at the National Portrait Gallery

The millionaire plumbing tycoon who claimed his Lithuanian girlfriend was only after his money has been ordered to give her hundreds of thousands of pounds.

John Hoggins, 62, met 47-year-old Greta Cerniauskaite when she was a cleaner at the National Portrait Gallery.

He said she 'nagged' him to buy her a house fill it with 'the contents of most of the shops in Bond Street'.

He bought her a £160,000 Bentley, bankrolled a £100,000 fashion and jewellery shopping spree and paid for £8,000 worth of monogrammed sheets and towels from Milan.

Together they owned properties in Hertfordshire, Spain and Florida, and holidayed in Alaska, Cuba, Thailand and Mauritius.

He paid himself £150,000-a-year from his plumbing empire, and gave her an annual salary of up to £93,000 for a job which did not require her to work.

When they split after nine years, Miss Cerniauskaite, who now works as a businesswoman and model, claimed she had a right to their £650,000 second home in the village of Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire.

Mr Hoggins contested that he paid the house's £100,000 deposit, the mortgage costs and all the bills after buying it in 2009.

But a judge at a hearing at the First-Tier Tribunal in London has ruled the property is, and always was, Miss Cerniauskaite's alone.

The money Mr Hoggins ploughed into the home was a 'gift' by a 'generous' man, Judge Ann McAllister ruled.

She added: 'There is no doubt that John was extremely generous in these years and that considerable sums of money passed through his hands.

'It is clear from all the evidence I have heard and read that John now feels very bitter towards Greta and has convinced himself that, from the outset, her intentions were to get what she could out of the relationship financially.

Mr Hoggins paid himself £150,000-a-year from his plumbing empire, and gave Miss Cerniauskaite an annual salary of up to £93,000 for a job which did not require her to work

'His evidence is that the relationship had begun to deteriorate badly from 2007 onwards and that he only stayed with Greta because his youngest son adored her.

'But there is no dispute but that Greta was trying to become pregnant in the years 2005 to 2011.

'What is also clear and is amply demonstrated by the paperwork I have seen is that he was a remarkably generous, some might say impulsive man, whose own life was complex and not always easy.

'It was, by any reckoning, and for those years, a life of ease and wealth.'

The tribunal heard the couple met in 2004, when Mr Hoggins was in the final stages of his first marriage, while Miss Cerniauskaite had been married twice before.

Mr Hoggins ran a number of plumbing and heating businesses, employing more than 50 people.

He and Miss Cerniauskaite lived in Ellis Close, Hoddesdon, and never actually moved into the disputed property in Stepped Gable Mews, High Wych Lane, Sawbridgeworth.

Mr Hoggins, who claimed the place was only intended as a holiday home, said she refused to move in because there was not enough wardrobe space.

The tribunal heard the couple met in 2004, when Mr Hoggins was in the final stages of his first marriage, while Miss Cerniauskaite (pictured) had been married twice before

Mr Hoggins bought bought Miss Cerniauskaite a £160,000 Bentley (file photo), bankrolled a £100,000 fashion and jewellery shopping spree and paid for £8,000 worth of monogrammed sheets and towels from Milan

The home was put in her name but Mr Hoggins claimed that was only in order to get a mortgage more easily, because he already had debts.

But the judge ruled: 'I accept Greta's evidence and in particular that John reassured her that, whatever happened, she would have the property.

'Although she did not work for his company, I accept that she did a great deal to make his life easier and to help with his children.

'I do not doubt too that, whatever the cause of the breakdown of the relationship, the relationship, which lasted nine years, was not as unhappy as John is now at pains to portray it.

'In my judgment, it is clear from all the evidence that John intended that Greta should own the property legally and beneficially.'

She added: 'John spent a great deal of money on Greta over the years.

'If he could spend £100,000 on what might be described as fripperies, there is no reason to think that a further £100,000 by way of a deposit and further money to pay the mortgage should be put in a different category.'