James Stunt faces a retrial in £266m ‘dirty money scam’

Playboy James Stunt, ex-husband of F1 heiress Petra Ecclestone, faces a retrial after a jury failed to reach a verdict over an alleged £266million money-laundering scam. 

The flamboyant ex-public schoolboy, who consorted with King Charles as well as a criminal gang boss, was cleared of forgery after a marathon eight-month ‘dirty money’ trial but jurors failed to reach a verdict on a charge of money laundering.  

Stunt was one of eight defendants on trial in relation to an alleged criminal network which prosecutors said saw hundreds of millions of pounds deposited in the bank account of Bradford gold dealer Fowler Oldfield from 2014 to 2016.

Four of the defendants were cleared of all charges today, but the jury of seven men and four women were unable to reach verdicts in the case of the four others after deliberating for six days.  

Nicholas Clarke KC, prosecuting, told the court there will be a re-trial for these four defendants, including Stunt on the money laundering charge.

James Stunt arrives at Leeds Crown Court this morning, where the jury were deliberating his money laundering case 

Stunt and his girlfriend Helena Robinson outside Leeds Cloth Hall Court during a break for lunch earlier this month 

Bankrupt Stunt was on legal aid throughout the proceedings, which overall left the taxpayer to pick up a bill estimated at around £300,000 for his barristers alone, a Kings Counsel and his junior.

Adding in solicitors’ preparation and court costs could easily take that figure past £1.3m, according to legal sources. But the fall-out of the trial will also cost the Crown itself, in the shape of reputational damage to King Charles III.

The various links which emerged between flashy Stunt, who glided around London in a fleet of limousines while high on cocaine, and the then heir to the throne Charles, raise serious questions about the King’s judgement, and of his aides.

Charles was already mired in controversy over the £2.6m in cash contained in holdalls and Fortnum and Mason carrier bags, said to have been accepted for his charities from former Qatari prime minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber al-Thani.

In Stunt’s case, as well as making donations including £65,000 to the Prince’s Trust and £50,000 to Dumfries House, for which he was fulsomely thanked in letters headed Clarence House or Highgrove, he was also able to convince the Prince to accept a number of paintings on loan.

To the acute embarrassment of not just the Prince of Wales, but of the late Queen, four of those paintings turned out to be fakes, the work of convicted US art forger Tony Tetro.

Charles had intended to hang the four dodgy paintings, supposedly by Picasso, Dali, Monet and Chagall, in pride of place at his 2,000-acre Scottish mansion Dumfries House, HQ of his personal charity the Prince’s Foundation.

James Stunt pictured with his then-wife Petra Ecclestone at the Monaco Grand Prix in May 2012

Stunt with his ‘godfather’ Terry Adams, the feared boss of London’s biggest crime gang

Stunt framed the grateful letter from the future king and displayed it in his office to show off to visitors, as well as thank you notes for donations to his charities, and another expressing his sadness over Lee Stunt’s death.

Stunt also tried to use the fake paintings as collateral to secure a £20m loan to pay off his mounting debts, but was unable to fend off bankruptcy.

Then there was the question of an office at Stunt’s Mayfair HQ, lent out with, he said, rent-free, to his ‘friend’ Sir Michael Peat, former principal private secretary to the Prince.

Asked about the photograph of him with the future king in court, introduced as part of his defence, Stunt said he could not be sure exactly when it was taken, but confirmed it was between 2014 and 2016, the period covered by the criminal indictment.

Just in case the jury hadn’t noticed, he told them: ‘That’s now King Charles III, was the Prince of Wales. It was taken either at Clarence House or St James’ Palace, I can’t be sure which, but not Buckingham Palace. I visited Buckingham Palace, but that wasn’t this occasion’, he said, adding: ‘There is more than one photo of me and His Majesty’.

Remarkably, the judge even reminded Stunt’s defence team that they were free to call Charles as a character witness, to given evidence in court, which would surely have compounded his discomfiture over the case — but they apparently demurred.

Frequently telling the jury he was ‘not a name-dropper’, Stunt went on to scatter those of the rich and famous with relish, from Charles himself, to ‘friends’ former PM David and Samantha Cameron, Viscount Linley, Elton John and David Furnish, Princess Charlene of Monaco and various members of Gulf state royal families.

One name he did not ‘drop’ to the jury, however, was that of Terry Adams, the feared boss of London’s biggest crime gang.

Stunt claims that Adams – once convicted of money laundering himself – is his ‘godfather’, but the full extent of their association has never been clear.

A photo of Stunt with the future King Charles which he was questioned about in court 

A fake Marc Chagall painting that Stunt offered the Palace on loan 

What is clear is that in a career spanning almost five decades, Adams, 67 has ruled London’s underworld with an iron fist, controlling a hefty portion of its drug trade and allegedly presiding over an estimated 25 murders and scores of horrifically violent attacks with a ruthlessness described by police as ‘worse than the Krays’.

Stunt, 40, was one of eight defendants on trial for laundering the cash on behalf of drugs barons, which saw £266 million deposited in the bank account of Bradford gold dealing firm Fowler Oldfield from 2014 to 2016.

The court heard that astonishing amounts of criminal cash was brought, contained in binbags, sports bags and holdalls from all over the country to the premises in West Yorkshire, before the scheme ‘went national’ and the money pipeline also began flowing into Stunt’s prestigious offices in Mayfair.

In one photo produced in the trial, Stunt’s elder brother Lee was shown surrounded by piles of notes in the ‘counting room’ at Stunt and Co, based on the seventh floor of historic Leconfield House, once the HQ of MI5.

Lee, 37 died of a drugs overdose just the day before the premises were raided by police in September, 2016.

The defendants hid the origin of the money by moving it through a company bank account and using the proceeds to buy gold, according to the prosecution.

Unknown to the jury, banking giant NatWest has already been fined £264.8m for its own breach of money-laundering regulations for failing to raise the alarm, even after staff reported their suspicions internally about huge deposits of Scottish-issued notes with a ‘musty’ smell.

Prosecutor Nicholas Clarke KC told the court it was ‘blindingly obvious this was criminal cash’.

The money was all paid into Fowler Oldfield’s bank account.

Police later visited James Stunt’s opulent London office (above) as part of their money laundering investigation

Stunt, who frequently broke down in tears in the witness box as he gave evidence in his rambling and over emotional defence, told the jury of seven men and four women [correct] that his business – Stunt & Co – was a ‘legitimate gold bullion dealer’ and the plan was to source raw gold and turn it into high-quality gold bars.

Jurors heard Stunt began a ‘joint venture’ with Fowler Oldfield in August 2015 but he denied there was anything illegal about the partnership, saying: ‘To be as ostentatious, as I was, that’s like walking around with a sign saying ‘arrest me’.’

Prosecutors claimed Stunt became involved in the alleged network because the breakdown of his marriage to the daughter of F1 billionaire Bernie Ecclestone meant the ‘river of money’ from her family was ‘running dry’.

Stunt claimed he was ‘not a kept man’ during his relationship, but the source of any income other than his wife’s inherited millions has always been an unanswered question for the man who included the hashtag #billionaire on his Instagram profile page.

Stunt told jurors Ms Ecclestone’s family were ‘very controlling of our marriage’.

Asked by his own barrister Richard Fisher KC – whose bills are believed to have been paid by legal aid — if he had ever sought attention, Stunt said: ‘I’m not a Kardashian, I’ve never done anything to achieve fame.

‘Wow, I have some money, I married a famous man’s daughter.

‘That wasn’t what I wanted. I loved my wife – I didn’t love her bank account.’

Nevertheless, when his marriage broke up, Stunt’s life descended into a cocaine-fuelled spiral of fast cars and fast living – until the money ran out and he was declared bankrupt in June 2019.

James Stunt with Petra Ecclestone and her father Bernie Ecclestone in Mayfair in 2010

In December 2017, Stunt claimed a £90million haul of gold and diamonds had been stolen from his home in Britain’s biggest ever burglary.

He told police that thieves had emptied the safe in the basement of his £12million Georgian townhouse in Belgravia last month while he slept upstairs.

Cash, gold and diamond jewellery was stolen in the raid, said Stunt, who said he’d not yet got around to installing a high-tech CCTV system at the house after his belongings were seen being moved in a fortnight earlier.

But former security guard Justin Kalnutis told MailOnline in 2018 that neither he nor two other security staff guarding the property saw or heard anything suspicious that night and claimed no break-in took place.

At the same time, other members of the security detail complained they were owed hundreds of thousands of pounds in unpaid wages.

The origins of Stunt’s wealth, if not from the Ecclestone coffers are shrouded in mystery and his own tendency for braggadocio. He told Tatler that he made £4m from an oil deal when he was aged just 16, was given £1m by his father on his 21st birthday, and ‘made £45m on the biggest bet in the world.’

He has also claimed to have made hundreds of millions of pounds through the shipping industry, with his personal wealth supposedly estimated at between £3billion and £4billion.

Stunt and Petra Ecclestone married in 2011 in a £12million ceremony in Rome, and had three children before their divorce six years later.

Petra’s assets included a £100million Chelsea mansion and a £158million home in Los Angeles.

But in June 2017 they began their court battle which saw Mr Stunt evicted from the Chelsea property.

Stunt had been accused of laundering cash that was taken to premises owned by Bradford gold dealer Fowler Oldfield between January 2014 and September 2016

Mr Stunt then moved in to his Belgravia property. For a while he retained his collection of classic cars including a Lamborghini and two Rolls-Royce Phantoms.

After the divorce settlement, Stunt said in a statement: ‘I am devastated that my marriage has broken down. I love Petra and our children.’

No details of the settlement were revealed, but it has been reported that Stunt had signed a prenuptial agreement worth £16million.

During a bad-tempered hearing, details of their marriage were laid bare, including allegations that he was abusive, violent and took overdoses.

By 2018 Stunt lived in a £12million house in Mayfair, West London, and boasted a security detail of 25. But that same year he had his assets frozen at the High Court in a proceeds of crime order connected to the money laundering case.

His ex-wife Petra put a very different spin on supposed ‘billionaire’ Stunt’s wealth after they broke up, branding him a kept man.

She described the playboy, as ‘horrible and narcissistic’ and said: ‘The man is not a billionaire and never was. Naively, I funded his life for our entire marriage.

‘James always had such a sick obsession with money and being perceived to be a ­independently successful billionaire.’

She even claimed he tasked someone to compile his Wikipedia entry, naturally inserting the description ‘billionaire’.

Petra, now 33, and remarried to electrician-turned-Beverly Hills real estate agent Sam Palmer, told her Instagram followers in 2019 that her ex’s prized Lamborghini was just a ‘kit car with a Ford key’.

Stunt is pictured standing with his girlfriend Helena Robinson outside Leeds Cloth Hall Court during the trial 

Petra said that while Stunt liked to portray himself as an ‘independently successful billionaire’, in reality he spent ‘most of his days in bed high on prescription drugs‘.

She added: ‘I blame myself for helping create the monster he has now become.’

But it wasn’t just prescription drugs – Stunt admitted to the jury that for a time after his divorce he took cocaine every day for two years.

For the duration of the trial, Stunt has been living in Leeds, whose virtues he extolled to the jury at one point.

Each day he arrived at court immaculately dressed in suit and tie, usually with his glamorous and equally smart blonde girlfriend Helena Robinson, 26, on his arm.

Ms Robinson, the daughter of divorced Sussex estate agents James and Jane Robinson, worked in an exclusive Louis Vuitton watch shop in Mayfair when she first met Stunt.

Throughout most of the trial she was to be seen waiting loyally at the back of the huge courtroom while her boyfriend sat with the other defendants, often throwing up his hands, vigorously shaking his head or even making sarcastic comments, during prosecution evidence.

Stunt has hailed her as ‘my Helena of Troy’, crediting her with getting him off drugs and saving his life.