FALLEN PLAYBOY’S £4M HUMBLING
Petra’s ex sees his Belgravia home put on market for cut-price £8m
SPACIOUS, luxurious and reassuringly expensive, it is a house fit for a tycoon.
And until recently it was home to playboy James Stunt. However, now it is not so expensive after all.
He has seen almost £4million wiped off the value of his once- prized villa in Belgravia, central London.
When he bought the stunning home for £11.75million in 2017 he was a gold bullion dealer and self-declared billionaire.
Yesterday, after it was put on the market following his forced eviction, the asking price was a more modest £7.95million – a fall in value of £3.8million.
It is the latest humiliation for Stunt, 38, the ex-husband of Formula 1 heiress Petra Ecclestone. He put a brave face on his downfall this week by posting a photo of himself on Instagram in happier times with a painting by Anthony van Dyck, boasting to his 90,000 followers the picture ‘at my new house behind me is worth £15million’.
His former home, the Belgravia mews house, is being advertised by upmarket estate agent Knight Frank. It says the four- storey home ‘consists of a triple aspect reception room, a large kitchen/ dining room, study, media room, gym with steam, bath and shower, wine cellar, laundry, guest WC and plant room’.
The price tag of £7.95million – a relative bargain – is likely to have been chosen to ensure a quick sale. The property was repossessed in March after Stunt was declared bankrupt and was understood to have fallen behind on repayments.
A team of bailiffs descended on the villa, accompanied by security guards, dogs and
‘A relative bargain’
locksmiths. They carted out an unidentified painting and several suitcases, and stuck a ‘notice of possession’ on the front door, saying a writ had been secured at the High Court to take control of the house.
The brash businessman, who once bragged of owning 200 supercars and that losing £5million in a casino meant nothing to him, also lost two luxury apartments overlooking Chelsea Harbour in London.
Stunt, who updates his Instagram almost daily, complained at the time: ‘This has already cost me £50million. They are taking my homes. I’m a billionaire.’
Once worth an estimated £3billion, Stunt had his assets and cash frozen at the High Court in 2018 at the request of the Crown Prosecution Service in a ‘proceeds of crime’ restraint order. He faces charges of money laundering and forgery at a trial due to take place in 2022, but has repeatedly declared himself innocent.
In a rambling message on Instagram this week, he said: ‘The CPS want to know about a bank account in Liechtenstein I have never heard of.’ He added: ‘Someone has gone to Liechtenstein and opened an account to frame me.’