Harry Potter actor is ordered to pay his former agent £210,000 - just hours after child star's hilarious tweet about how he blew all his earnings on fast living 

A Harry Potter star has been ordered to pay his former agent a £210,000 slice of the million pound fortune he earned from the hit films.

Devon Murray, 27, was taken to the High Court by this week by agent Neil Brooks, who secured him the continuing role of Irish schoolboy wizard Seamus Finnigan in the Harry Potter movies.

Mr Murray played the role in all eight films between 2001 and 2011. The court heard that in total, he earned about £970,000.

Giving his ruling this afternoon at the conclusion of the bitter High Court spat, Mr Justice Michael Moriarty expressed his ‘regret’ over revelations that the former child star squandered about £1million on ‘cars, drink and girls’ in his teens.

Colin Murray tweeted this photo on social media, along with the caption: 'Completely forgot about this picture taken at Oxegen! Like she must have the worst mates in the world!! #oxegen'

The Harry Potter star posted a seemingly ironic tweet mocking his playboy lifestyle after his mother told the High Court how he blew his £800,000 fortune on cars, drink and girls

Mr Murray's mother Fidelma revealed how her son spent his money from the Harry Potter films on alcohol, girls and cars, telling the court 'I only have one child. I wasn’t going to give out to him over that'

The High Court judge ordered Mr Murray to pay Mr Brooks £210,000 - a 9 per cent reduction on the £230,000 the agent had sought in his civil action.

The judge also dismissed a counter-claim for more than £79,000 that the family said they paid to the Dublin-based Neil Brooks Management.

Judge Moriarty also ordered Mr Murray to pay the costs of the case against him.

The case was taken against Devon Murray, his taxi driver father Michael and his mother Fidelma.

Outside the Four Courts in Dublin today after the ruling, Mr Murray told the media: ’What’s done is done now. There’s nothing we can do. We’re all gutted now. There’s not a whole lot we can do. We have to get by whatever way we can now.’

Asked about ‘squandering’ his cash, the young actor said: ’There was an awful lot of things I put money into. I bought a lot of horses at the time… I bought property and the arse fell out of that. It wasn’t all just women, cars and drink. It wasn’t all that.’

Mr Brooks told the Irish Daily Mail as he left the courts complex: ‘I’m delighted it’s finally over. It’s been a long, hard battle. I hope Devon makes a success of himself as an actor. My only regret is that the fees were squandered in such an unfashionable manner.’

Devon Murray, 27, pictured outside court wih his mother Fidelma and father MIchael, played wizard Seamus Finnigan in the Harry Potter films and is being sued by his agent

The young actor’s mother Fidelma Murray revealed how she sacked her son’s Dublin-based agent Neil Brooks for failing to ‘shield’ her teenage son after pictures of him smoking emerged in late 2004

Mr Murray was just 12 when he beat thousands of other hopefuls to win the part of Seamus Finnigan in the first Harry Potter film, The Philosopher’s Stone, back in 2000. He shot to fame on the back of it.

On Thursday, the High Court in Dublin heard how Mr Murray now gets by on £1,000 a month in ‘residual’ payments arising from his role in the Harry Potter franchise.

His mother Fidelma Murray told the court how the family ‘almost lost our house’ and didn’t have the money to pay lawyers to represent them in court. She added: ‘We don’t ask the the State for any money.’

But when Judge Moriarty pointed to Devon’s past earnings from the movie business, Mrs Murray revealed: ‘He was a teenage boy. He went drinking. He went out with girls. He bought cars. I only have one child, I wasn’t going to give out to him over that.’

At the end of yesterday’s hearing, Judge Moriarty had announced that he would give his ruling today.

Overnight, Mr Murray posted a seemingly ironic tweet mocking his lifestyle which said: ‘Drink!!! Cars!!! Girls!!! #FatherDevon’. The tweet was not mentioned in court when judgment was delivered today.

Mr Murray first signed with Mr Brooks, pictured at court, in 1998 when he was just 10. He went on to beat thousands of other hopefuls to win the part of Seamus Finnigan in the first Harry Potter film

Devon Murray, right, and Daniel Radcliffe in The Philosopher's Stone. The Irish actor's character Seamus had a running joke through the film series in which he would inadvertently blew himself up

In his court action, Mr Brooks said Mr Murray had once been ‘a joy to work with’ but that relations with the family later broke down over alleged non-payment of commission fees.

It was alleged that Mr Murray ‘tried to dodge out of his obligations under the contract in an unlawful manner’ after the first four films.

Mr Brooks claimed that Mr Murray and his parents broke an agreement to pay him commission fees of more than €286,000 (£230,000).

Meanwhile, the Murrays, who are from Celbridge in Co. Kildare, had lodged a counter-claim for more than €98,000 (£79,000).

Delivering judgment, Judge Moriarty said he had a ‘duty of fairness’ to both sides - but that he had found the evidence of Mr Brooks ‘preferable and more cogent’ to the evidence put forward by the Murrays.

The judge ruled that the expert evidence put before him this week had established that Mr Murray owes Mr Brooks €260,000 (£210,000).

Judge Moriarty allowed for a 9 per cent reduction on the amount Mr Brooks had originally sought - because some observations made by the agent’s expert financial witness had been ‘to some degree a little hypothetical’.

Ordering Mr Murray to pay 91 per cent of the amount claimed in the court case by Mr Brooks, Judge Moriarty said: ‘I make an order in favour of the plaintiff [Neil Brooks Management] to that effect. I make no order in relation to the counter-claim.’

Turning to the family, Judge Moriarty said: ‘I’m very sorry for the Murray family. It seems it was a marvellous career for Devon in the making and I’m sorry things didn’t work out in what I had viewed as a fruitful and proper relationship with Mr Brooks.

‘I am equally regretful that… a million or more went on pursuits that were not particularly helpful and left the family in a difficult situation.’

Mr Brooks said he was appointed sole agent for the young actor in October 1998 under a commission-based agreement that entitled him to commissions of 12.5% for Mr Murray’s film and TV earnings.

It was claimed that an increase in commission fees was later agreed - but that the Murrays had failed to make such payments since around August 2005. 

Lucrative: The young actor, pictured far left alongside Rupert Grint and Daniel Radcliffe in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire