FI's Ecclestone admits £400m fraud

Billionaire, 92, avoids jail and celebrates with £4 doughnut

- Paul Jeeves

FORMER Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone yesterday admitted to what is thought to be one of Britain's biggest ever personal tax frauds.

The 92-year-old billionaire avoided jail but his reputation was left in tatters.

Ecclestone, who is Britain's 65th richest person, had failed to declare to the Government a trust in Singapore which held assets over £400million.

He was handed a 17-month jail term, suspended for two years, at Southwark Crown Court and celebrated staying a free man by taking his Brazilian wife Fabiana Flosi, 46, to nearby Borough Market for a £4 doughnut.

The court heard he has paid a civil settlement of over £652million in relation to his tax affairs - around a quarter of his £2.5billion fortune.

HMRC said the sum included money owed as part of his wider tax affairs over 18 years, added interest and a penalty of more than £340million.

Regrets

An HMRC source confirmed to the Daily Express last night that the case is thought to be the biggest personal tax fraud in the UK.

They said: "It's definitely among the biggest ever and you'd be hard-pressed to find an individual case involving a bigger sum than this one."

Meanwhile, despite his advanced years and heart condition, anger grew on social media that Ecclestone, who originally denied the fraud but changed his plea yesterday, was spared jail.

Last year the average length of prison sentences for UK tax fraud hit a new high of 5.3 years, up 66% from 3.2 years in 2018.