Bernie Ecclestone says Portuguese police subjected him to ‘wall-to-wall aggravation’ after he was stopped at an airport for illegally carrying a shotgun – which he claims was for clay-pigeon shooting.
Formula One supremo Ecclestone, 95, was reportedly arrested at Tires Aerodrome in the municipality of Cascais close to Lisbon after landing there in his private jet from Switzerland.
And speaking to Daily Mail Sport, Ecclestone admitted he had travelled with the gun without the correct documentation and was held up for ‘hours’. His wife Fabiana Flosi, 49, is now trying to rectify the situation.
Ecclestone told the Daily Mail: ‘I had a gun that I was bringing over from Switzerland to Portugal for clay-pigeon shooting. It’s as simple as that. I have guns at home there that are licensed.
‘We cleared customs on arriving here – I know the guys there – and they were fine with everything. No problems. Then a policeman afterwards asked to search the bag. It could have been [his six-year-old son] Ace’s fishing tackle for all it looked like, but it wasn’t.
‘They asked if I had a “blue book”, which is apparently the documentation you need, and I told them I never travel with documents like that, any documents at all practically. They said they would arrest me, but after what seemed like hours, we sorted it out, but it has been wall-to-wall aggravation.
Bernie Ecclestone, pictured with his wife Fabiana Flosi, was reportedly arrested in Portugal for illegally carrying a shotgun
‘But it seems it can be put right. Fabi has gone to Lisbon to surrender the gun, or pay the tax or whatever you need to bring it in, or to hand it over in the end. I said I would go too but I didn’t as it happened, and I am sitting at home waiting for it to be the situation to be put to bed.’
Flight radars today show a private jet having flown to Cascais, landing at 10.55pm, from Saanen in Switzerland, where Ecclestone has a £23million ski chalet. Private jet experts value Ecclestone’s Dassault Falcon 7X plane at around £30million.
He was previously arrested in May 2022 in Brazil for illegally carrying a gun while boarding a private plane.
He acknowledged owning the gun but said at the time he was unaware it was in his luggage.
Ecclestone was freed and allowed to travel to Switzerland after paying bail. He described it afterwards as a ‘silly, tiny little incident’, saying it had caused a lot of aggravation as he and family tried to leave Sao Paulo by private plane.
He also denied he was formally arrested despite Sao Paulo state’s public security office confirming in a statement a businessman it didn’t name was arrested for possession of a firearm at Campinas’ airport.
Ecclestone’s arrest occurred after he landed at an airport to the west of Lisbon, in Cascais
Ecclestone said afterwards he had bought the handgun, a LW Seecamp .32, from a Formula One mechanic or tyre man in Brazil years ago without ammunition and purely as a deterrent.
He added: ‘They said you need something like this. It might work if someone tried to mug you or something. So I bought it from the guy.
‘I had it in the house and used to muck around with it if people came to visit me or something, we would joke around.’
In April it was reported Bernie Ecclestone’s wife had bought a mansion in the prestigious resort area of Quinta da Marinha in Cascais for £35million.
Respected Portuguese daily Correio da Manha described the deal at the time as the ‘largest private sale ever of a home’ in the country.
It said Brazilian Fabiana, 46 years younger than Ecclestone, agreed the purchase of the property around 15 miles west of Lisbon in January after negotiations lasting half a year.
A spokesman for the PSP police force, which according to Portuguese media reports made the arrest, said: ‘Our border control officers haven’t made the arrest that’s being attributed to them.’
The force said in response to a formal request for a statement or additional information about Mr Ecclestone’s reported arrest: ‘Regarding the questions raised, we inform you that this concerns an occurrence involving the Tax and Customs Authority – Lisbon Delegation (Customs), and you should therefore request clarification from that entity.’
Customs’ officials couldn’t be immediately reached for comment.
