Stunt earned just £11,000 one year... and got tax refund!
JAMES Stunt’s billionaire lifestyle of gambling and big spending was in stark contrast to the income he declared to the taxman, a jury heard yesterday.
In the year he spent living in ‘America’s biggest house’ with a fleet of luxury cars and up to 50 domestic staff, and blowing a small fortune on betting, the socialite had a ‘total legitimate income’ of £11,000, official records show. He even got a tax rebate of £200 from the Government.
Stunt, 40, admitted he was ‘tax efficient’, even though a dive into finances shows that during his seven-year marriage to Formula One heiress Petra Ecclestone, the pair jointly spent £69 million.
Stunt’s money laundering trial heard that in 2011, the year the couple enjoyed a lavish and star-studded wedding, his after-tax income declared to HMRC was £68,000.
Asked about the figures, he said the sale and purchase of fine wines, paintings and antiques ‘don’t always show up’.
Stunt admitted he never had a ‘9 to 5 job’ but said he was ‘around lots of high net-worth individuals’. ‘ It’s not difficult to put them together to make deals and be on the receiving end of lots of generosity,’ he told the jury.
Pressed further about his income, Stunt said he had the world’s ‘biggest allocation’ of certain fine wines and that his art collection was ‘predominantly the best art in the world’. He added: ‘Things can appear a certain way that are not a certain way.’
After being asked about figures on his official HMRC returns, Stunt told the jury at Leeds Cloth Hall Court: ‘There’s a big difference between tax avoidance, tax evasion and tax efficiency. I believe everyone should pay tax but be as tax efficient as possible.’
Questioned by prosecutor Nicholas Clarke KC, Stunt disagreed with the claim that he became increasingly ‘reliant’ on the Ecclestone family and his father, businessman Geoffrey Stunt, for money.
‘They are equally reliant on myself,’ he said.
Asked if Miss Ecclestone contributed the majority of funds to their joint account, he replied: ‘ On the face of it, yes.’
Stunt told the court that before his marriage he was given free shares in the betting company Betfair and ended up making a profit of ‘around £10 million to £15 million’ from selling his stake.
He said he was given the shares for ‘bringing in high-end rollers.’
Mr Clarke told Stunt a key question he wanted to address was ‘where is the cash from?’ He said this referred to all £266 million of allegedly criminal cash said to have been laundered, which Stunt denies.
He was asked if any of the tens of millions of pounds that passed through his office before being paid into the NatWest bank account of Bradford gold dealer Fowler Oldfield was from criminal conduct.
Stunt said: ‘It’s not a matter for me to speculate on. I’m trying to be a humble, honest man and tell you I don’t know.
‘The NatWest didn’t question it so why would we find it nefarious?’
Stunt said his business model under the ‘joint venture’ with Fowler Oldfield was that the Bradford dealer would collect scrap gold which would be refined at his Sheffield refinery and turned into gold bars branded with the Stunt name.
The defendant made money available for Fowler Oldfield to buy the scrap gold, the court heard.
Stunt said his company made ‘just shy’ of 1,000 gold bars, something the prosecution says is ‘a cover story’.
‘This was no cover story,’ Stunt said. ‘This was an utterly transparent and legitimate gold bullion business bearing my name.’
He added he would never become involved in money laundering or work with criminals.
Stunt insisted to the jury that he was ‘ humble’ rather than ‘arrogant’. But he admitted buying small pieces of land to acquire two titles – the Duke of Cumberland and Marquis of Cumbria – when he was younger.
The duke title was bought for £995 and appeared on his driving licence and bank accounts, the court heard. But Stunt dismissed it as a ‘youthful dalliance’ of little significance.
Stunt and seven others all deny money laundering. Stunt also denies forgery.
The case continues.
‘I’m trying to be a humble, honest man’