Ex-F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone spared prison after pleading guilty to £400m fraud

Ex-Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone has been spared prison after failing to declare more than £400 million of overseas assets to the government.

The billionaire was sentenced to 17 months in prison suspended for two years, after pleading guilty to fraud on Thursday.

On 7 July, 2015, the Ecclestone failed to declare a trust in Singapore with a bank account containing around $650 million.

Bernie Ecclestone arrives at Southwark Crown Court (PA Wire)

The charge stated Ecclestone, who has three grown-up daughters, Deborah, Tamara and Petra, and a young son, Ace, had “established only a single trust, that being one in favour of your daughters and other than the trust established for your daughters you were not the settlor nor beneficiary of any trust in or outside the UK”.

The 92-year-old said “I plead guilty” at Southwark Crown Court on Thursday while standing in the well of the court wearing a dark suit and grey tie. Before his guilty plea, he had been due to face trial in November on the single fraud charge.

His defence barrister, Christine Montgomery KC, told sentencing judge Mr Justice Bryan that the defendant “bitterly regrets the events that led to this criminal trial”.

In 2014, Ecclestone agreed to pay £60 million to bring an end to a bribery trial in Germany.

Ecclestone was alleged to have bribed a German banker to steer the sale of German regional bank BayernLB’s 47.2% stake in F1 to a private equity firm, CVC Capital Partners, in 2006. CVC were the majority shareholders in F1 at the time.

At the time, Ecclestone said he was “a bit of an idiot” for paying the settlement.

After deliberating for three hours on the offer made by the defence and agreed by the prosecution, the presiding judge, Peter Noll, declared: “The charges could not, in important areas, be substantiated.”

Ecclestone, pictured with Lewis Hamilton, had been due to stand trial in November (Getty Images)

As a result of that investigation, HMRC opened a tax fraud investigation into Ecclestone.

Mr Wright told the court that a meeting was held between Ecclestone and HMRC officers in July 2015.

He said that Ecclestone was “seeking to a draw a line under investigations into his tax affairs.”

Mr Wright added: “He was fed up of paying huge bills for advice.”

The court heard Ecclestone had said “no” when asked by HMRC officers whether he had any links to further trusts “in or outside the UK”.

Ecclestone was “seeking to a draw a line under investigations into his tax affairs”, the court heard (PA Wire)

Prosecutor Richard Wright KC said: “That answer was untrue or misleading. Mr Ecclestone knew his answer may have been untrue or misleading.

“As of July 7 2015, Mr Ecclestone did not know the truth of the position, so was not able to give an answer to the question.

“Mr Ecclestone was not entirely clear on how ownership of the accounts in question were structured.

“He therefore did not know whether it was liable for tax, interest or penalties in relation to amounts passing through the accounts.

“Mr Ecclestone recognises it was wrong to answer the questions he did because it ran the risk that HMRC would not continue to investigate his affairs.

“He now accepts that some tax is due in relation to these matters.”