Former F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone admits fraud after failing to declare £400m

Ex-Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone has admitted fraud after failing to declare more than £400 million held in a trust in Singapore to the Government.

The 92-year-old, wearing a dark suit and grey tie, said “I plead guilty” at Southwark Crown Court in London on Thursday.

In July 2015, the billionaire failed to declare a trust in Singapore with a bank account containing around $650 million, worth about £400 million at the time.

The court heard the former racing driver has agreed a civil settlement of £652,634,836 in respect of sums due to HMRC.

The charge stated Ecclestone, who has three grown-up daughters, Deborah, Tamara and Petra, and a young son, Ace, had “established only a single trust, that being one in favour of your daughters and other than the trust established for your daughters you were not the settlor nor beneficiary of any trust in or outside the UK”.

Before his guilty plea, he had been due to face trial in November on the single fraud charge.

His defence barrister, Christine Montgomery KC, told sentencing judge Mr Justice Bryan that the defendant “bitterly regrets the events that led to this criminal trial”.

In 2014, Ecclestone agreed to pay £60 million to bring an end to a bribery trial in Germany.

Ecclestone was alleged to have bribed a German banker to steer the sale of German regional bank BayernLB’s 47.2 per cent stake in F1 to a private equity firm, CVC Capital Partners, in 2006. CVC were the majority shareholders in F1 at the time.

At the time, Ecclestone said he was “a bit of an idiot” for paying the settlement.

After deliberating for three hours on the offer made by the defence and agreed by the prosecution, the presiding judge, Peter Noll, declared: “The charges could not, in important areas, be