Bernie Ecclestone pleads guilty to offshore fraud

Former head of Formula 1 Bernie Ecclestone has pleaded guilty to fraud after failing to declare a trust in Singapore which held assets worth more than £416m.

He has been sentenced to 17 months in jail suspended for two years and made a payment of more than £652m in relation to his tax affairs covering tax interest and civil penalties. Part of the payment is a failure to correct penalty for offshore non-compliance charged at the maximum rate of 200%.

HMRC began its civil tax investigation in 2012 and the billionaire businessman was given the opportunity to make a disclosure under the contractual disclosure facility or a code of practice 9. However he said was not the settlor or beneficiary of any offshore trust in follow up interviews with civil tax investigators in 2015.

Information provided to HMRC by...