One horror crash that F1 Bernie must be enjoying

WheN married to Petra eccle - stone, James Stunt enjoyed parading in London’s West end with a platoon of bodyguards and a fleet of blacked-out limos, like a dictator from a banana republic.

But those glory days appear to have vanished for ever. For I can disclose that the high Court has ordered Stunt & Co, his precious metals company, to be wound up.

The legal action seemingly had the blessing of his former father-in-law, billionaire Bernie ecclestone, even though, according to Petra, Bernie had loaned the company £10 million.

It was initiated by Formula One World Championship Limited, the firm of which Bernie was a longstanding director and of which he remains ‘chairman emeritus’.

‘Bernie’s not one to bear grudges,’ one of the tycoon’s old friends tells me, ‘but he’s fascinated by the slow, painful, public financial humiliation that James is experiencing.’

A year ago, Petra predicted her father would not be getting his money back ‘any time soon’. Stunt & Co, billed as ‘a prestigious supplier of gold bullion’, reported a profit of just £23,000 for its most recent accounts.

But they were for the year ending March 31, 2017 — the year Stunt’s marriage to Petra ended in a lurid divorce case, during which Stunt called Bernie an ‘evil dwarf’.

Since then, Stunt’s fortunes have disintegrated. he was declared bankrupt in the high Court last year when the judge branded him ‘appalling’.

A few months later it emerged that 17 ‘Old Masters’ he had loaned Dumfries house — the mansion which the Prince of Wales saved for the nation — were copies.

And last month Stunt’s Belgravia house went on the market for £7.95 million, seven months after it was repossessed, together with two luxury apartments he owned in Chelsea worth £5 million apiece.

Perhaps Stunt, 38, will turn to his godfather, Terry Adams, for advice.

Jailed in 2007 for money laundering, Adams was back in court last year to explain he now lived in a council flat and was unable to pay £46,000 legal costs. Told that he faced another year inside, he managed to find the money within three hours.