The former racing driver received a 17-month suspended jail sentence after he admitted fraud in a tax investigation. This was after he already agreed to pay £652,634,836 as part of a civil settlement over unpaid tax, interest and penalties.

The Times reports that Eccleston was due to stand trial in November, but changed his plea after a judge dismissed his claim that it was unfair to prosecute him because he had a greater chance of dying than surviving the case.

Eccleston was charged in August 2021 with concealing from taxation authorities a Singapore-based trust with a bank account holding £400m. He previously admitted fraud for 2007-2008 which led to a loss of tax over a property deal. Nevertheless, a new HMRC investigation was launched after allegation surfaced that in German in 2011 he paid a bride to a banker linked with F1.

It has been reported that in 2015 he had replied “no” when asked by HMRC investigators if he was involved in any trusts that they were unaware of. According to reports, he accepted in court on Thursday that he should have responded “I don’t know”.

Investigators at HMRC then discovered the Singapore-based Kinan Trust, which Ecclestone used to trade foreign currency. The dealing led to gains or losses of tens of millions of US dollars a year.

Mr Justice Bryan said he had weighed up all the factors in the balance relating to the case, and revealed he was going to pass a suspended sentence order.