National Lottery Winner to Return the Money

May 14th, 2019 2.00pm

Amanda Nuttall (45), a 2008 National Lottery winner, is at the centre of a scandal after being asked to forfeit her winnings, along with some of the properties acquired over the last 11 years. After more than a decade of spending the money that she should not actually have, Nuttall is under suspicion of money laundering, revealed by an 8-year long investigation.

The Math Behind the Lavish Lifestyle

The extravagant lifestyle that exceeded the £2.5M jackpot has triggered a lengthy investigation, opening a huge can of worms and implicating several persons including Amanda’s husband. The significant other has, however, managed to avoid the civil court proceedings, since the unlawfully acquired assets are under Amanda’s name.

It was not long before people started noticing that some things were simply not adding up. The “modest” £2.5 jackpot has, somehow, financed a rather extravagant VIP lifestyle and monetary escapades worthy of the Saudi royal family. With no more than a couple of million pounds, Amanda covered private school tuitions for her children, Harrods shopping sprees, private jets, luxury vehicles, exotic holidays, a country mansion, and rented Belgravia residence.

The unwanted attention of the National Crime Agency is not the family’s first encounter with the law. The Nuttalls have a history of VAT evasion and benefit-related frauds, but things took a much more sinister turn this time, as there are implications of illegal affairs with a link leading to Russia.

The Russian Connection

According to National Crime Agency findings, the entire affair is part of a multi-million fraud racket that involves some rather unsavoury characters. Apparently, the investigation uncovered a strong Russian connection and revealed that Amanda’s husband managed to accumulate “considerable wealth” through illicit means and questionable banking practices. The proceeds acquired via these channels were registered under Amanda’s name and attributed to her good fortune in 2008.
The Head of Asset Denial at the National Crime Agency, Andy Lewis, has stated that Mr. Nuttall is currently not a part of the claim for funds retrieval.

“He is not himself a party to the claim. This 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. Recovering assets that have been illegally obtained is a priority for the NCA and we are pleased that our commitment to this investigation into Mr. Nuttall and his associates has paid off in agreeing this settlement. The defendants were of high standing within their communities with interest in local properties and businesses. Crime most certainly has not paid in this case”, says Lewis.

Some of the compromising assets that Nuttalls were not able to account for:

• Stowe School in Buckinghamshire attended by Nuttalls’ three children, £38,000 per year
• London’s Belgravia flat – £2,000 per week
• White Horse Hotel in Romsey (Hampshire), which is one of the properties Mrs. Nuttall will have to forfeit, along with the money
• Property on the Embley Park estate
• Bentley Mulsanne and several other expensive cars

During the course of the investigation, the NCA has analysed approximately 100,000 transactions that occurred in the course of several years. The findings indicated that the cash was embezzled from Russia and accumulated through a series of frauds that took place in the United Kingdom.
The suspicion was raised after Amanda and Jonathan Nuttall failed to give a valid account of how the money was spent or explain exactly how the £2.5M could support their spending habits.

Amanda Nuttall is just one of the individuals required to return the unlawfully gained properties – The High Court has also imposed the orders on a property tycoon and businessman Eric Grove (89) and barrister Timothy Becker (55).


London’s Belgravia, Where Nuttalls Were Renting a Flat for £2,000 a Week

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