England's Paul Casey condemned Padraig Harrington to the 19th runners-up finish of his career by winning the last-ever Benson and Hedges International Open.

The 25-year-old from Surrey denied Harrington a glorious return to The Belfry, scene of last September's Ryder Cup victory, with a four-stroke triumph.

Casey, joint leader with Harrington and New Zealander Stephen Scahill overnight, captured the £183,330 first prize thanks to a closing 71 in the blustery conditions for an 11 under par total of 277.

Following as it does his triumph in the ANZ Championship in Sydney in February, the former English amateur champion - he won that twice - now stands second on the European Order of Merit behind Ernie Els.

And if he can stay there for two more weeks a US Open debut next month will be his.

"I used that as an incentive and for some reason I was not nervous," he said. "I've not enjoyed last rounds in the past, but I did today.

"It means a great deal to win this. I made my European tour debut here two years ago on an invitation and was 12th. That really started things off for me."

The hole he will look back most fondly on was the 545-yard 15th. Having just double-bogeyed the short 14th to go from four ahead to only two, he crunched a drive and three-wood into the 'howling' wind onto the green and two-putted for birdie.

"I just can't hit it any further than that. I defy anybody else to hit two better shots," he added.

Harrington still took away £122,220 and there is no need to feel too sorry for him.

He earned £381,333 for finishing second at the Players' Championship in Florida in March and has made an estimated £2million from all his near-misses in his career.

But he dearly wanted to win this one - not only because it was the final B&H event before a government ban on tobacco sponsorship comes into force, and not only because it would give him almost as many good memories of The Belfry as Sam Torrance.

There was also the matter of three years ago. He led by five then with a round to go, but was disqualified without hitting another shot after the chance discovery that he had forgotten to sign his first round scorecard.

It would have been fitting if he had come back from that traumatic experience to put his name on the trophy at the very last opportunity. But it was not to be.

"Everything was going to plan until I got complacent over a short putt at the ninth," he said. "I don't know if it upset me, but I had 10 putts after that which I thought were going in and didn't.

"They just kept falling out rather than falling in. But Paul's a class act, a good player who's a strong hitter of the ball. He should move on from here."

Joint third were Scahill, Dutchman Rolf Muntz and former Open champion Paul Lawrie, who had a hole-in-one with a seven-iron at the seventh and would have been second on his own but for going in the lake at the last and double-bogeying.

As he said, things began well enough for Harrington when he holed a 25-foot birdie putt on the first. But Casey, playing behind him, birdied the fifth and sixth to nose in front.

Harrington three-putted the ninth, missing from little more than two feet, but Casey took five there as well after a bad drive and looked likely to be back on level terms when he carved his drive wide of the 11th fairway.

Instead, however, he finished the hole two ahead. As he made a 20-footer for par Harrington three-putted again on the next.

The gap was three when Casey converted a 15-foot chance there and it was four when the Irishman bogeyed the short 14th.

The same hole gave Casey his one horrible moment after he fired his tee shot wildly right, but the next put him back in firm control and with Harrington taking six on the long 17th, it was effectively all over.

Earlier Sweden's Richard Johnson had broken the course record with a 64.

The 26-year-old from Stockholm turned in 32, then holed a 30-foot eagle putt on the 10th, added further birdies at the 13th and 14th and finished with a 12-foot par putt.

It broke the previous record of 65 held by Barry Lane, Adam Scott and Scahill, although Harrington had a 64 in the third round in 2000, but then had it scrubbed out when he was disqualified the following day for not signing his first round scorecard.

Johnson, who moved from four over par to four under and from 53rd to sixth place, said: "The putter seemed to be on fire all day and it was an awesome feeling to shoot a round like that.

"It was crazy. It was not easy out there."

Justin Rose also eagled the 10th and did it with just one club. After finding the fringe with a three-wood he used it again and holed. The 22-year-old finished well down the field on five over, however.

Colin Montgomerie was three better than that, but it was a disappointing week for the Scot after his second place in the Italian Open.

Collated final totals in the Benson and Hedges International Open at the Brabazon course, The Belfry, Sutton Coldfield, England

(Gbr & Irl unless stated, par 72):

277 Paul Casey 71 69 66 71 (£183,330)

281 Padraig Harrington 67 68 71 75 (£122,220)

282 Paul Lawrie 71 72 70 69, Rolf Muntz (Ned) 70 71 69 72, Stephen Scahill (Nzl) 71 70 65 76 (£56,833 each)

284 Richard Johnson (Swe) 73 68 79 64 (£38,500)

285 David Park 72 70 74 69, Brian Davis 70 74 69 72, Angel Cabrera (Arg) 68 69 70 78

286 Matthew Blackey 71 76 69 70, Nick O'Hern (Aus) 73 74 68 71, Simon Khan 72 70 71 73, David Dixon 66 78 68 74

287 Klas Eriksson (Swe) 75 72 73 67, Bradley Dredge 73 69 72 73, Jose Manuel Lara (Spa) 72 68 73 74

288 Arjun Atwal (Ind) 71 73 76 68, Soren Hansen (Den) 77 70 70 71, Jamie Spence 72 71 72 73, Jean Van de Velde (Fra) 75 70 70 73, Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg) 70 72 70 76

289 Jamie Elson 71 69 78 71, Robert Rock 71 73 72 73, Paul McGinley 73 72 71 73, Gary Emerson 75 70 70 74, Niclas Fasth (Swe) 75 73 66 75

290 Lee Westwood 72 73 73 72, Peter Lawrie 74 71 72 73, Daniel Greenwood 79 66 70 75, Colin Montgomerie 72 70 72 76

291 John Bickerton 74 71 72 74, Markus Brier (Aut) 74 72 71 74, Richard Bland 76 71 70 74, Henrik Stenson (Swe) 68 76 72 75, Julien Clement (Swi) 71 70 74 76, Roger Chapman 71 71 73 76

292 John E Morgan 73 75 72 72, Stephen Leaney (Aus) 69 72 77 74, Gordon Brand Jnr 69 74 75 74, David Gilford 69 75 74 74, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 73 72 72 75, Jean-Francois Remesy (Fra) 71 70 74 77, Mikko Ilonen (Fin) 75 67 73 77

293 Justin Rose 72 75 75 71, Henrik Bjornstad (Nor) 71 77 73 72, Stephen Dodd 74 73 73 73, Nick Dougherty 73 75 72 73, Richard Sterne (Rsa) 70 75 73 75, Gary Murphy 74 73 70 76, Bernhard Langer (Ger) 71 71 74 77

294 David Drysdale 75 72 75 72, Santiago Luna (Spa) 73 75 74 72, David Lynn 74 74 72 74, Martin Maritz (Rsa) 71 74 74 75, Terry Price (Aus) 73 71 74 76, Eduardo Romero (Arg) 73 71 74 76, Tobias Dier (Ger) 69 76 73 76, Shaun Webster 71 74 73 76, Mads Vibe-Hastrup (Den) 72 76 67 79

295 Emanuele Canonica (Ita) 69 72 75 79

296 Miles Tunnicliff 70 75 78 73, Peter Fowler (Aus) 72 72 77 75, Retief Goosen (Rsa) 74 73 74 75, Marcel Siem (Ger) 70 78 73 75, Malcolm Mackenzie 72 74 74 76, Andrew Coltart 70 73 75 78, Phillip Price 73 72 72 79

297 David Carter 72 73 79 73, Ian Garbutt 70 77 77 73, Johan Rystrom (Swe) 74 72 77 74, Mark Roe 72 72 76 77

298 Sandy Lyle 75 67 75 81

299 Jorge Berendt (Arg) 71 74 77 77

300 Peter Mitchell 72 74 74 80

301 Alastair Forsyth 73 75 81 72

302 Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 72 70 80 80

303 Costantino Rocca (Ita) 71 77 77 78

308 Peter Senior (Aus) 74 74 80 80