Bernie Ecclestone’s family solicitor, Stephen Mullens has been told to pay tax on £37m worth of ‘gifts’ he received from the former Formula One boss’s ex-wife, Slavica Ecclestone. Mullens received seven ‘one-off’ payments between the years of 1999 to 2013.

In the ruling handed down in May, the First Tier Tribunal determined that six of the seven disputed sums should be taxed as income, resulting in tax liability of roughly £17.2m and some £4m in penalties for failing to disclose the sums and interest, overall around £21m.

The main issue of the investigation was the appropriate tax treatment of the payments received and came about as Mullens did not inform HMRC of the payments, at the time they were given.