Trouble Brewing for Millionaire Hotel Mutt

A DOG who inherited his hotelier owner`s $12m fortune has been forced into hiding after being targeted by death threats.

The US media has reported that Trouble - the white Maltese who belonged to late New York hotelier Leona Helmsley - was whisked away from the city in a private jet after recieving the threats.

The New York Post says that tiny Trouble is even now living under an assumed name after recieving about 20 threats.

Trouble is apparently an unpopular figure anyway, having repeatedly bitten his owners staff over the years.

She was taken to an undisclosed location in Florida two months ago, the newspaper said.

John Codey, who manages the dog`s trust fund, told US television network CBS last week the cost of Trouble`s security, medical care, chef-cooked meals and grooming was about $300,000 (£145,000) a year.

Mrs Helmsley - dubbed the Queen of Mean for saying "only the little people pay taxes" - stipulated in her will that her beloved dog should be buried after its death beside her and her late husband Harry, who died in 1997

When Trouble dies, any remaining money from the pet`s trust will go to the charitable foundations that inherited most of the hotel magnate`s estate.

Mrs Helmsley died of heart failure in August, aged 87.