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You what?

Terry Adams, a former gangster whose family “firm” is linked to 25 murders, contacted the former Formula One boss offering to help to negotiate financial and other arrangements.

He is assisting James Stunt, a gold trader, after the collapse of his six-year marriage to Petra Ecclestone, 28. Mr Adams is godfather to Mr Stunt

The things you learn in divorce proceedings.

24 thoughts on “You what?”

  1. Bernie E is, when all’s said and done, a former Bromley used-car salesman. I have heard some astonishing stories about him that I can’t repeat on here, but it’s probably worth noting that he and Charlie Whiting, the race director, are chums from back in the Seventies racing days. CW’s brother Nick ended up shot and stabbed after being rumoured to have grassed up the Brinks Mat gang. Kenneth Noye, John “Goldfinger” Palmer. All part of the same network.

  2. Meanwhile the father of Victoria Adams, aka Posh Spice is also linked to said family (cousin?). It was because he would turn up to her school in a Rolls Royce – like to say gold but I think brown, that she was known as ‘posh’.

  3. It was because he would turn up to her school in a Rolls Royce – like to say gold but I think brown, that she was known as ‘posh’.

    I assumed it was because, compared to the very low bar set by the rest of them, she seemed posh.

  4. @TN
    I remember an interview in which Ginger Spice informed us that there are different degrees of Poshism, and Posh Spice wasn’t as Posh as the Queen, but compared to the rest of them she was Posher.

    So your thesis is proved I think.

  5. All sorts of dodgy people can contact you, rather difficult to prevent, really. It’s contacting them or accepting help which is the dodgy part.

  6. @TimN
    One of the SG’s is the sister of a pal. I’d always presumed Posh got her nickname the same way the short guy gets called Lofty.

    But yes. The Adams Family. (Not to be confused with a 70s US comedy show. Although sometimes easy. But not the comedy part). “…offering to help to negotiate financial and other arrangements.” Yep. I recognise that successful business model.

  7. Surely this is just to send the message to Bernie ‘Don’t try and do anything stupid, I’ve got some hard cases on my side too’?

  8. Sounds like a not-so-subtle threat: if you don’t do as you’re told, not only will I murder you, but I’ll get off scot-free too.

  9. Mr Stunt’s business model has always been somewhat opaque. It’s never been clear how the hell he makes any money, let alone enough to spend his life mooching around Mayfair in a fleet of supercars.

    However, finding out he is Terry Adams’ godson does suggest a few interesting possibilities.

  10. One of the SG’s is the sister of a pal. I’d always presumed Posh got her nickname the same way the short guy gets called Lofty.

    Gerry Halliwell went to Watford Grammar for Girls: she’s probably posher than the lot of ’em. I briefly knew one of her contemporaries there.

  11. Stunt: “I am not a gangster, I am nowhere near clever enough or cool enough to be one of those guys”

    If you’re the sort of person who thinks gangsters are clever and cool you most certainly don’t deserve even to be a criminal.

  12. “Mr Stunt is a familiar face on the London society scene and often travels with an entourage of bodyguards in a convoy of luxury cars which have numberplates based on his surname.”

    Based on your surname eh? Is that what the dealer told you?

  13. “familiar face on the London society scene” – what does “society scene” refer to here? I can’t imagine that two centuries ago they’d be letting the chap into Almack’s assembly rooms. Have the gentry and the loaded and the celebs developed one merged-up monstrosity of a social “scene”? Or are there in fact several grades of “London society” in which Stunt (and the Eccleston lass presumably) floated in the fishier end of the pond?

  14. Wait, I thought Bernie’s security people have vetted Stunt prior to the marriage. How come they didn’t discovered the rather obvious connection between Stunt and Adams? I mean having Terry Adams as the groom’s Godfather is more than ominous.

  15. “having Terry Adams as the groom’s Godfather is more than ominous.”

    Or part of the attraction?

  16. @ MBE
    There are now several different “London Society” scenes, most of which are London “Society” scenes invented by journalists with a massive chip on their shoulders as a result of their own inferiority.
    Within genuine London Society there are grades – I used, when living in London, to belong to one of the lower grades because I had/ have permission to dine at a London Club as a consequence of winning a scholarship to a public school 50-odd years ago [occasionally valuable – I took the American father of one of my wife’s friends (plus the two ladies, of course) to dinner there and he was *very* impressed]. I don’t even know any member of White’s …

    The answer is: “Yes, there are grades within London Society” but only the lefties in the press pretend that the Krays and their like are part of London Society

  17. I always rather liked Evelyn Waugh’s idea in Scoop that the young William Boot was given the diary page of the Daily Beast (I think) but was unable to write about anyone in London Society as his predecessor had libelled them all before committing suicide. His response was to invent an entirely new set of people and write about them. Soon other gossip columnists also reported seeing his invented creatures. Are we sure Mr Stunt is not actually an invention of someone like Craig Brown?

  18. The article have been pulled. Did someone at The Time realized that A-Team is still operational? Or did the legal department think this might get them sued by James Stunt?

  19. I was a bit late opening my Times epaper and was surprised to find page 3 blank except for “Content has been suppressed for editorial and/or legal reasons”. All is now clear 🙂

  20. That Petra’s a bit of alright, and loaded to boot.

    All things considered I’d ditch the wife for her, then ingratiate myself with the new father-in-law by pretending to ask his advice on what supercar to buy first.

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