Humbling of Petra's playboy

He recently bragged of owning 200 cars and boasted that losing £5million in a casino meant nothing to him.

But playboy James Stunt is being forced to live considerably more frugally these days – on the orders of a judge.

The gold bullion magnate ex-husband of Formula One heiress Petra Ecclestone, with whom he has three children, has had his assets frozen under ‘proceeds of crime’ rules, the Daily Mail can reveal. At a court hearing, secret until now, a judge also slapped a £1,000-a-week spending limit on Stunt, 37, who is described as ‘the Alleged Offender’.

For most mortals, this would be high-rolling enough, but for the brash, caviar-loving supercar fan, it must severely cramp his style.

The teetotal tycoon could not even drown his sorrows if he wanted to – as he is effectively barred from reaching into his wine cabinet, designed by Earl of Snowdon David Linley – and taking a restorative swig from his treasure trove of Chateau Petrus, which can cost £10,000 a bottle.

To do so would reduce the value of his cellar, and Stunt is prohibited from doing this. The Mail has obtained a copy of a ‘restraint order prohibiting disposal of assets’ served on him by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) under the Proceeds of Crime Act. The order threatens him with a fine or jail if he tries to sell his multi-million-pound homes or cherished fleet of supercars.

Over 17 pages, the restraint order freezes no fewer than 14 bank accounts, and bans the sale of his Lamborghinis, Rolls-Royces and Bentleys, and seven property deeds. The order was issued by Judge Sarah Munro QC, sitting at the Old Bailey, on August 29. The hearing was private, and was not reported at the time. When the Mail tried to report on the existence of the order last December, Stunt’s lawyers obtained a court order that banned publication.

But Stunt’s bid to gag the Press has backfired, after the Mail challenged the gagging order in court yesterday. It was overturned, meaning the Proceeds of Crime Act proceedings against the multi-millionaire can be revealed for the first time. The Act was introduced in 2002 to allow money or assets to be seized by the State if they were obtained through unlawful conduct. In Stunt’s case, he has not been charged with any offence, and it is not clear why the order has been made. His assets have not been seized, but their use has been restricted and he must not dispose of, deal with or diminish the value of them.

It is understood that, since August, the restraint order has been subject to minor revisions on three occasions, to take account of Stunt’s business interests.

In the original order, Judge Munro QC slapped a £1,000-a-week limit on him, saying: ‘This order does not prohibit the Alleged Offender from spending up to £1,000 a week towards his ordinary living expenses.’

It is a far cry from his days of splashing the cash. His costly and acrimonious divorce from Miss Ecclestone in 2017 did not dent his penchant for shopping trips to Harrods in a cavalcade of supercars. In March last year, he declared to Tatler magazine that he is ‘as rich as ever’.

He said he had once had a £5million credit line at ‘every casino’ in London, Monaco, Las Vegas and Macao but had recently cut his wagers to ‘just’ £20,000 a night, explaining: ‘Me fooling around with £20,000, I’m not trying to sound as if I don’t know the value of money, but it’s a huge improvement on losing £5million a night. You have to bet enough to hurt you, but I definitely had a gambling problem. I was losing millions every time.’

Interviewed at home by the high-society magazine, while wearing a £60,000 Audemars Piguet gold wristwatch, he showed off some of his paintings including a Van Gogh, a Constable, a Picasso and several Van Dycks.

These are likely to be among the list of artworks that Stunt has been ordered to draw up by the court. The judge demanded he itemise all of his ‘paintings, furniture, watches, jewellery and objets d’art’, along with their estimated value, photographs and locations where they are held.