Bernie Ecclestone fraud case shows HMRC must net more of the bigger fish

Tax fraud is too often a David versus Goliath battle between relatively low-paid civil servants and wealthy figures who can afford top advice, argues Chris Blackhurst

Bernie Ecclestone arrives at Southwark Crown Court on Thursday (PA Wire)

Let us hope that in years to come, when they attend their training courses, junior government prosecutors and HMRC officials are presented with a case study of the Bernie Ecclestone prosecution.

There he was, one of the richest, best-connected people in the country, friendly with world rulers and leaders, able to draw upon the firepower of the smartest lawyers and advisers, and the tax authorities kept going and going. For 11 years, from the moment they first opened a file on the F1 kingpin, and eight years from the point when he was asked if he was involved with any trusts, apart from the one he’d set up for his daughters. Along the arduous route, they had to endure all manner of twisting and turning – and still, they pressed on.

The stakes were high. Ecclestone is a master player of the media and politicians, someone plugged into the most high-powered of networks. Get it wrong, and the public servants would have known they could expect a broadside from the ferocious Ecclestone, and their jobs would be on the line. Yet again, we would find ourselves asking if it was right for the tax inspectors to pursue this presumably upright figure, a multibillionaire who transformed motor racing into one of the glitziest sports on the planet.