Lottery winners lived jet-set lifestyle with Harrods sprees and £100k Bentleys while ‘hiding money-laundering scam’
A LOTTERY winner used her £2.5million jackpot to cover up her husband’s massive money-laundering scheme, it has been revealed.
When Amanda Nuttall, 45, scooped the lottery jackpot in 2008, she and her husband were able to afford an international jet-set lifestyle.
They shopped at Harrods, chartered private planes for their holidays and bought luxury cars costing hundreds of thousands of pounds.
The couple even bought property on the prestigious Embley Park estate in Romsey, Hampshire, as well as the nearby White Horse Hotel and Brasserie, an award-winning luxury 29-bedroom hotel.
They were, however, living off far more than lottery winnings. An eight-year National Crime Agency (NCA) investigation revealed that Amanda’s businessman husband Jonathan Nuttall was at the heart of a massive international money-laundering scheme.
The 46-year-old businessman allegedly helped to transfer hundreds of millions of pounds through over 100 bank accounts in the UK, Russia, Hong Kong and Switzerland.
HUGE CASH ‘COVER-UP’
Nuttall then hid his wealth under his lottery-winning wife’s name.
Andy Lewis, Head of Asset Denial at the NCA, said: “Jonathan Nuttall amassed considerable wealth as a result of his and others’ unlawful conduct.
“He is not himself a party to the claim. That is because he structured his business affairs so that he didn’t hold any of the recoverable property himself, leaving everything in the name of his wife and others.”
Through Nuttall’s scheme, the couple were able to live in a £2,000 a week flat in Belgravia, London, take holidays to Dubai and Cannes, and send their three children to Stowe, a Buckinghamshire boarding school with fees of £38,000 a year.
MOST READ IN NEWS
Now, however, the Nuttalls and their associates are being forced to forfeit £6m worth of assets as part of a civil recovery.
Eleven properties are being recovered, including the White Horse Hotel as well as a £100,000 Bentley Mulsanne car.
Mr Lewis said: “The defendants were of high standing within their communities with interest in local properties and businesses. Money laundering most certainly has not paid in this case.”
- GOT a story? RING The Sun on 0207 782 4104 or WHATSAPP on 07423720250 or EMAIL exclusive@the-sun.co.uk