Keeping the car isn’t usually the priority for a woman going through a break-up.
But when there’s a £380,000 Lamborghini Aventador at stake...
Tamara Ecclestone yesterday found herself embroiled in a legal battle with her ex-boyfriend over the ownership of the futuristic black sports car.
Pleased: Miss Ecclestone leaves the High Court with her fiance Jay Rutland having won the first stage of her legal battle today
Row: Tamara leaving the Lamborghini Aventador at the heart of the case, which her ex sold claiming it was a gift but she says it wasn't and wants it back
Omar Khyami alleges that, although Miss Ecclestone bought the car, she gave it to him as a 38th birthday present last April. She denies this and claims it always belonged to her.
However, Miss Ecclestone secured a minor victory in the first round of her fight for the Lamborghini following a hearing at the High Court yesterday.
Cutting a glamorous figure in a tight-fitting dress and six-inch Christian Louboutin heels, she grinned with delight and held the hand of her new fiance Jay Rutland after she was told the car could not be shipped overseas to a Turkish buyer.
Sour: Miss Ecclestone with Mr Khyami in Monaco before their break-up and the row over the expensive car they both claim to own
Special: The Lamborghini is one of the world's rarest cars and has allegedly been sold to a Turkish national who is trying to have it shipped out of the UK
Instead it will be stored in a garage of her choice until the matter had been resolved.
Miss Ecclestone and Mr Khyami dated for two and a half years but three months after being given the keys to the sports car, their relationship came to an end after Mr Khyami was caught on a sex tape and the footage sent to her billionaire father Bernie.
Miss Ecclestone initially kept the car following their split but matters came to a head this month when it was taken to a garage in Acton, west London, for a routine service.
What then followed was an extraordinary chain of events. While at the garage, bailiffs from Central London county court impounded the car. Unbeknown to Miss Ecclestone, 28, Mr Khyami had used the Lamborghini as security for a £250,000 loan with Elite Performance Cars – the dealership which sold her the car – and was being charged a staggering interest rate of 70 per cent.
Despite the car being impounded, Mr Khyami allegedly persuaded bailiffs to release the Lamborghini, and he gave the vehicle to Elite, apparently in settlement of his debts.
The car was then sold to a company called Ansol Trading for £118,000 cash plus a £132,000 Mercedes in part exchange, and then sold again to a Turkish buyer.
Blocked: Omar Khyami leaves the £380,000 car in June 2012 when he and Tamara Ecclestone were a couple. His ex gained an injunction keeping it under lock and key in Britain today
Commenting on the complicated sequence of events, Mr Justice Warren said that if the Lamborghini was never a gift to Mr Khyami, then he never had title to it and could not sell it.
He added Mr Khyami had got the car back in ‘extraordinary and unusual circumstances’ and said: ‘The underlying dispute is about the ownership of the car. It is between the complainant and the first defendant.
‘She is saying that it is hers and he is saying that although she bought it, he was given it as a present during the currency of their relationship.
‘Miss Ecclestone is entitled to see it sitting in a safe place which is not connected with any of the defendants.’
Within hours of the relationship breaking down between Miss Ecclestone and Mr Khyami, it is believed she began dividing their assets into ‘his and hers’ lots worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.
First, she locked up her collection of supercars, which they both drove – including the Lamborghini Aventador and a Ferrari 599 worth £212,096 – in a private garage away from the £4million Chelsea home the couple shared.
The model and television presenter then arranged for two other cars and jewellery worth more than £145,000 to be delivered to Mr Khyami’s mother’s house in Mayfair, Central London.
The items included a yellow gold Cartier ‘Love’ bracelet worth £26,250 and matching silver one costing £36,500. The cars included a £123,000 white Bentley with personalised ‘T48’ numberplates, a Christmas present from Mr Khyami, and a £76,000 black Range Rover Sport.
The injunction protecting the safe-keeping of the Lamborghini remains in force until the dispute between Miss Ecclestone, Mr Khyami, Elite and Ansol is resolved. No date has been fixed for that hearing.