Jenson Button accused of ‘fraud’ over £130,000 car
Buyer thought he’d be driving F1 star’s Ford... not his wife’s
FORMULA One champion Jenson Button is at the centre of a legal row in which he is accused of ‘fraudulently’ selling a 1970 Ford Bronco for £131,000 at auction by ‘ falsely’ claiming it belonged to him.
Mr Button, 44, who took the 2009 F1 title and is now a pundit for Sky Sports, sold the automatic blue 4x4 via the Collecting Cars website in January 2022.
The advert – still online – states Mr Button as the owner, and adds: ‘It has been in Jenson’s ownership for the last four years.’
It was bought by British company director Leo Eccles, 45, but he has launched legal action against Mr Button, claiming he was ‘not the legitimate owner’ and instead it belonged to his ‘girlfriend’ Brittny Ward, 33, who became his wife after the sale.
Mr Eccles says he paid a premium for the car because he believed it was owned by Mr Button, but claims it is worth only £25,000
‘Button offered a photo of himself in the car’
because Ms Ward was the true owner. As a result of the ongoing legal row, Mr Eccles – who is the director of a Gloucestershire-based gaming firm called Ginger Fox – has still not picked up the car from the US, two years after the sale. It is also claimed that the vehicle was registered in Ms Ward’s name, not Mr Button’s.
According to court documents filed at Los Angeles County Court that the Mail has seen, Ms Ward posted photographs of the car on her Instagram account indicating it was hers, tagging them ‘ my girl’. But the post appears to have been taken down.
In 2019 Mr Button posted a picture of himself sitting in the car with the caption ‘Cruising in Brittny Ward’s Bronco, basically keep the battery charged for her’.
Then, in November 2020, he featured on a podcast for Collecting Cars that is still online, and said: ‘I’ve got a Bronco, which is actually really not mine, it’s my missus’ car, but I’ll say it’s mine.’
The court documents state: ‘Button’s successful career and lucrative sponsorship deals turned him to a very wealthy man and his fortune is estimated to be between $150-$170 million.
‘Yet, despite his riches, Button had no qualms in listing a vehicle for sale and advertising it as owned by him. His reputation resulted in the car being sold for $166,000… even though the same car was sold for users earlier for a mere $32,000.’
Mr Eccles says he asked Mr Button to refund the $166,000 and cancel the sale but claims that Mr Button then ‘offered a picture of himself in the car’ and to ‘re-register it in his name’.
The documents accuse Mr Button and his wife of fraud, intentional misrepresentation, and breach of contract and business code. But Mr Button claims Mr Eccles is backing out of the deal because he is ‘unable to register the car’ in South Africa, where he is travelling.
The counter claim adds that Mr Button and his wife are ‘ready, willing, and able to deliver the vehicle to Eccles but he refuses’. Mr Button’s lawyers say Mr Eccles was ‘looking for a way out of the deal’ as he had ‘buyer’s remorse’.
Mr Button married US model Ms Ward in 2022 – after the sale of the Bronco that January – and they live in Los Angeles with their two children.
Lawyer Ethan Brown, speaking for Mr Eccles, told the Mail: ‘Mr Button is contending that our client can’t get the car registered in South Africa and that is the real issue, and not the ownership of the car, which we are contesting.’