STUNT’S £21M EVICTION
I’m homeless, whines Petra’s ex as bailiffs seize 3 properties after assets are frozen
FURIOUS James Stunt ranted ‘they have made a billionaire homeless’ as his £11million luxury home was repossessed yesterday.
The self-styled playboy complained he could catch coronavirus living on the streets as bailiffs changed the locks on his ‘palace’ in Belgravia, London.
His two luxury apartments overlooking Chelsea Harbour, worth £5million apiece, have also been repossessed.
Stunt, 38, who was once married to Formula 1 heiress Petra Ecclestone, went on a bizarre tirade about ‘completely farcical’ moneylaundering laws and said rumours he had been arrested were untrue.
The former gold bullion dealer was declared bankrupt last June by a judge who branded him ‘appalling’ for stringing along his creditors. Once worth an estimated £3billion, his assets and cash have all been frozen at the High Court at the request of the Crown Prosecution Service in a ‘proceeds of crime’ restraint order. At the time of the order last year he was limited by a judge to spending £1,000-a-week.
Yesterday, in a video posted to his 90,000 followers on Instagram, Stunt claimed that in a private hearing at the High Court on Wednesday, ‘I called the judge a c***... I said you can’t even judge an egg and spoon race.’
Stunt is the godson of Terry Adams – the head of Britain’s most notorious crime family – and once boasted of owning 200 supercars and claimed losing £5million in a casino meant nothing to him.
Yesterday a team of burly bailiffs descended on his Belgravia villa, accompanied by security guards, dogs and locksmiths. Men carted out an unidentified painting and several suitcases and loaded them into a Range Rover.
A ‘ notice of possession’ was posted on the front door, saying West One Loan Ltd had secured a writ at the High Court to take control of the property, which was bought via a shell company in 2017 for £11million.
Stunt had a mortgage with West One and is understood to have fallen behind on his repayments.
He was nowhere to be seen as he lost his four-bedroom home. But he said in his 30-minute Instagram video: ‘It’s sad it’s come to this.
‘They made a billionaire homeless today. I am a little bit ticked off they chucked me out of my palace in Belgravia. It’s obviously not very nice when your beautiful home is taken from you.
‘I could sleep in the street tonight, with the coronavirus, even though I’m a billionaire.’ He added: ‘Certain people seem to be under the impression I was arrested – but no, the CPS couldn’t catch a cold. Not arrested, OK? They made a rich man who has not been arrested go homeless. I have not been arrested for any crime. Can anyone explain how the money-laundering laws of this country are not completely farcical?’ Stunt directed four-letter expletives at West One. He bought the Chelsea Harbour apartments in 2012 and 2015 and purchased the Belgravia mews villa at around the time of his acrimonious 2017 divorce from Miss Ecclestone, with whom he has three children.
Speaking about himself in the third-person, he claimed he had lost £50million. He said: ‘James Stunt owned three residential properties and now owns none. Penniless. They managed to take my actual house now. They already took two other properties, two luxury apartments. This has already cost me £50million. They are taking my homes. I’m a billionaire.
‘My net worth was read out in the court. I am loaded. I just can’t access my money because of an illegal restraint order. Imagine having my net worth and not being able to buy a penny sweet?’
Miss Ecclestone was granted a divorce after a bitter legal fight over their joint £5.5billion fortune.
A court heard details of how their marriage broke down, including hotly- disputed allegations that Stunt was abusive and violent.
Last year, Stunt embroiled Prince Charles in a fake art scandal.
He lent a Picasso and Monet to the Prince’s Foundation to hang at a stately home, but it was later claimed they were forgeries – which Stunt denies.
Last night a spokesman for West One said: ‘We have no comment.’