A rum go, as the Brits would say

TRENTON - A multimillionaire heir to the Bacardi rum fortune has been ordered to pay his ex-wife alimony dating back to October.

An Essex County judge ordered Anton Bacardi to pay $125,000 to ex-wife Frances Bacardi, including $8,900 a month in back alimony, according to Stephen Haller, a lawyer for Frances Bacardi.

The Bacardis were married for 12 years before divorcing in 1996. Anton Bacardi moved back in with his ex-wife and their two daughters after the divorce, assuming the mortgage and other household expenses for the family's $1.6 million West Caldwell mansion, Haller said.

Frances Bacardi, 53, told the New York Post that her 55-year-old husband began acting erratically last year and emptied the house after she moved out last fall.

She now lives in the basement of her parents' Roseland home and works as a bookkeeper in a family business, Haller said.

Anton Bacardi is believed to be in Saudi Arabia, Haller said. *