Husband of F1 heiress Tamara Ecclestone is cleared of aiding fugitive

Jay Rutland (L) and Tamara Ecclestone Rutland
Dave Benett

The husband of Formula One heiress Tamara Ecclestone has had claims that he helped a drug kingpin to flee the country dropped.

Jay Rutland, 35, was facing a trial over the allegation that in 2010 he helped crime lord James Tarrant to go on the run, but the Crown Prosecution Service has written to Thames magistrates to say the case against him had been abandoned because of lack of evidence.

Mr Rutland, a former stockbroker, had appeared twice in court on the charge already, and faced a stream of tabloid speculation that Miss Ecclestone, 31, was about to leave him.

Convicted: drugs trafficker James Tarrant. It was claimed that Mr Rutland helped him go on the run

Tarrant skipped bail while facing drug trafficking and firearms charges, and stayed on the run for five years before turning himself in last year. He was jailed for 14 years in his absence and is now serving the sentence.

In the charge levelled at Mr Rutland it was said he “facilitated the movement of an international fugitive across international borders, with intent to impede the apprehension or prosecution of James Tarrant”.

Prosecutors have now conceded there is not enough evidence to sustain the charge.

Mr Rutland did not did not attend today’s hearing at which the case was discontinued, which lasted less than a minute.

The case against his co-defendant Martin Beckett, 42, who was charged with the same offence, was also discontinued.

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