James Stunt ‘told PA to forge his signature to buy £320,000 Andy Warhol painting’

James Stunt’s £266million dirty money trial was shown a photo of the grinning socialite with then-Prince Charles – as the court heard how his F1 heiress ex-wife Petra Ecclestone used to joke that she was the ‘richest PA in the world’ because he dictated all his emails to her.

Stunt’s prized photo – never before published – was shown to the jury at today’s hearing as he stands trial accused of money-laundering and forgery.

The socialite, 40, allegedly received  £46million as part of a gang that laundered millions of pounds of criminal cash over a three-year period. Prosecutors have claimed that he may have been involved in the alleged scheme because the breakdown of his marriage to Miss Ecclestone meant the ‘river of money’ from her family was ‘running dry’. 

Leeds Cloth Hall Court has already heard of Stunt’s various associations with King Charles III in the past. He told the court that the then Prince of Wales had written a eulogy for Lee Stunt’s funeral in 2016 which was read out at the service.

Stunt’s many charitable donations included £65,000 to the Prince’s Trust and £50,000 to Dumfries House, and he told the jury that he once leant office space to his friend Sir Michael Peat, Prince Charles’ former principal private secretary.

Asked about the photograph of him with the future king by his barrister Richard Fisher QC, Stunt – who was giving evidence for a second day in his defence today – 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.

He said: ‘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.’

Stunt added ‘there are more than one photo of me and His Majesty’. 

At Stunt’s £266million money laundering trial: 

• The court heard that Petra Ecclestone used to joke that she was the ‘richest PA in the world’ because he used to dictate his emails to her on account of his hyslexia; 
• Stunt was accused of asking his PA Francesca Sota to forge his signature to pay around £320,000 for an Andy Warhol painting from a London gallery while he was ‘jacked up on morphine’ in hospital in Los Angeles in 2015; 
• He dismissed the forgery charge and said businessmen including his father and Bernie Ecclestone have stamps with their signatures on, adding: ‘Bernie Ecclestone does it, my father does it, if that’s a crime you should lock up half the court’;
• Stunt also said that he knew former prime minister David Cameron ‘intimately’.

The court was shown a picture of James Stunt with the-then Prince of Wales, Charles, which the defendant said was taken either at Clarence House or St James’ Palace’

Socialite James Stunt and Helena Robinson arriving at Leeds Cloth Hall Court

Stunt arriving at Leeds Cloth Hall Court for his £266million dirty money trial

Lee Stunt (pictured seated, right) was another alleged member what prosecutors have described as a sophisticated £266m money laundering operation. He passed away in 2016

The court also heard that Stunt allegedly asked his PA Francesca Sota to forge his signature to pay around £320,000 for an Andy Warhol painting from a London gallery while he was ‘jacked up on morphine’ in hospital in Los Angeles in 2015.

The prosecution has said Stunt sent an email to Sota asking her to ‘forge’ his signature, reading: ‘Sorry to call so late was in hospital I made payment my bank is saying I need to sign something meaning they have not made them please forge my signature first thing in the morning get [his brother] Lee or witness it yourself please this must be signed and emailed to the relevant parties. Thank you x.’

Later, Stunt said ‘Call me as soon as you can I need that bank thing signed witnessed and sent to them or the payment won’t be sent that screws me badly!’.

Stunt said he lost his temper with the LA medical staff who wanted him to stay in hospital for a second night. Dismissing the forgery charge, he said businessmen including his father and Bernie Ecclestone have stamps with their signatures on, adding: ‘Bernie Ecclestone does it, my father does it, if that’s a crime you should lock up half the court.’

He said: ‘It was the first time I have ever tried morphine. I was floating on a cloud, you vomit and things, but it’s a wonderful feeling.’

Stunt said he had tried to buy a painting by the US artist with one of his ‘multiple bank accounts’ but ‘made a human error and didn’t realise there weren’t enough funds in the account’.

Jurors have previously heard that on February 9, 2015, Stunt told the Arbuthnot Latham private bank that he was going to write a cheque to be drawn on his account for £320,000.

Prosecutor Nicholas Clarke KC said a document was sent for Stunt to sign before they would allow him to draw the additional funds from the account.

The court heard an email from Stunt to Sota said: ‘Sorry to call so late was in hospital I made payment my bank is saying I need to sign something meaning they have not made them please forge my signature first thing in the morning get Lee or witness it yourself please this must be signed and emailed to the relevant parties. Thank you x.’

Later, it was said, Stunt wrote: ‘Call me as soon as you can I need that bank thing signed witnessed and sent to them or the payment won’t be sent that screws me badly!’

An email from Sota was later sent to the bank saying: ‘Please find attached the signed document by Mr Stunt and myself as a witness.’

Stunt told jurors he was ‘a man of integrity’ and ‘didn’t prejudice a bank’.

He said: ‘It’s my own money, I think this (forgery) is a laughable charge.’

The defendant said he ‘didn’t mean to put (Sota) in any precarious position’ and ‘didn’t know this was even an offence’.

‘I didn’t mean forgery. Forge can mean a friendship, I could forge a friendship with you Your Honour,’ Stunt said. ‘I meant, please make my signature in my name.

‘I thought it was part of her duties (as a personal assistant).’

During the hearing, Stunt said his severe dyslexia mean that he did not use emails himself because his spelling and grammar were ’embarrassing’.

‘I always dictated emails to my wife,’ Stunt told the court, ‘She used to joke to me ‘I’m the richest PA in the world, James’ and she once made me write my own email and the spelling and grammar were embarrassing.

‘She had a smartphone and I didn’t. Everyone knew [about his dyslexia], Petra Ecclestone, [her sister] Tamara Ecclestone, there were no secrets in the House of Ecclestone, there was nothing to hide.’

Stunt is one of eight defendants on trial over an alleged network which the court heard saw millions of pounds deposited in the bank account of Bradford gold dealer Fowler Oldfield over two years. Prosecutors claim the ‘criminal cash’ was brought into business addresses owned or managed by Stunt and his co-defendants between January 2014 and September 2016.

Stunt with Bernie Ecclestone, Petra Ecclestone, Tamara Ecclestone and Omar Khyami

Stunt pictured with his then fiancee Petra Ecclestone in 2011

The court has heard that Stunt took ‘a very hands-on approach’ as his company became involved in the ‘sophisticated’ £266million money-laundering operation, prosecutors.

Leeds Cloth Hall Court previously heard that hundreds of thousands of pounds at a time was brought in carrier bags and holdalls to Fowler Oldfield in Bradford, West Yorkshire.

Prosecutor Nicholas Clarke KC has said the defendants hid the origin of the money by washing it through a company bank account and using the proceeds to buy gold.

On Wednesday jurors were shown messages between Stunt’s employees and co-defendants Alex Tulloch and Francesca Sota, and staff at Fowler Oldfield. The court heard one message from Tulloch in November 2015 said: ‘James not happy though… James wants to know what his profit is for this week. Concerned about profitability etc.’

The court was told another message from Tulloch in April 2016, when Stunt was living out of the country, said: ‘Ensure that I get updated at least daily on £ in London and Bradford. Gold sold: Lock ins (Scotia), Cookson’s, Dubai. Refining: Any material coming out of the refinery.’

Mr Clarke said this showed Stunt was ‘taking a very hands-on approach even though he was a very long way away at the time’.

He said that Stunt was the owner and director of Stunt & Co but ‘delegated much of the responsibility to others’.

The prosecutor told the court: ‘He was not involved in the day-to-day management of the buying and selling of gold and was not included in most of the correspondence via electronic means.

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

‘However, emails between others demonstrate that he was very much aware of and authorised what was going on.’

Jurors were told the alleged money laundering then ‘went national’ as one of Fowler Oldfield’s directors, Greg Frankel, became a vice president of Stunt & Co, and Stunt’s premises in London also started receiving cash.

Five defendants from Fowler Oldfield – Greg Frankel, Daniel Rawson, Paul Miller, Heidi Buckler and Haroon ‘Harry’ Rashid – all say the prosecution cannot prove that any of the cash was criminal property.

Stunt and the defendants from his company – Tulloch and Sota – say they ‘don’t know whether it was’, the court has heard.

But prosecutors say it is ‘blindingly obvious this was criminal cash’ and each of the defendants ‘must at the very least have suspected that the source of the money was criminal in origin’.

Jurors were told West Yorkshire Police launched Operation Larkshot to investigate large amounts of cash being credited to the bank account of Fowler Oldfield and collected from three sites – Fowler Oldfield’s own premises, the offices of James Stunt in central London and a new company called Pure Nines in Hatton Garden.

Mr Clarke said substantial amounts of cash were being paid into a bank account of Fowler Oldfield Limited from 2014.

He told jurors they aroused the suspicions of bank staff because ‘they were of such an amount, on a daily basis, as may come from a Premier League football stadium on a match day or similar size venue or event’.

The wider investigation discovered that from January 1 2014 until September 16 2016, more than £266million in cash and unknown deposits were paid into the Fowler Oldfield bank account, the court heard.

Buckler, 45, Frankel, 44, Miller, 45, Rashid, 51, Rawson, 45, Sota, 34, Stunt, 40 and Tulloch, 41, all deny money laundering.

Stunt and Sota also deny forgery.

Stunt married Ms Ecclestone, daughter of F1 tycoon Bernie Ecclestone, in Italy in 2011. They had three children together but divorced in 2017.

The trial continues.