Yorkshire businessman Jonathan Brudenell fined for car insurance frauds after prison release

Jonathan Guy Brudenell, 51, appeared at York Crown Court on Monday and pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud by making a false representation. A third charge, which he denied, was allowed to lie on file.

Mr Brudenell was found to have failed to disclose serious fraud convictions which led to a nine-year prison sentence in 2014 to his car insurance provider, Esure, while making a claim, and also neglected to inform them of speeding convictions he had acquired in 2018 and 2019.

As he remains on licence for the 2014 sentence until June, he was given 28 days to pay a £500 fine or risk being returned to prison.

Judge Simon Hickey added that his past record was a 'serious aggravating feature' in the case.

The court was told that the once-millionaire businessman now works with his partner and earns around £500 per week.

Mr Brudenell, who lives in Sandsend, near Whitby, was first investigated by police in 2009 after being declared bankrupt.

They found that he had persuaded others to invest in fake property deals, and in 2013 he was sentenced to five years in jail at Teesside Crown Court after pleading guilty to fraud and perjury.

He made his money in property, hotels and aviation - and owned stakes in The Feversham Arms and The Black Swan in Helmsley.

Money given to him by associates to invest on their behalf was instead spent on paying his own debts.

In 2014 he was given another three-year sentence at Teesside Crown Court for conning women into giving him money after he had met them on the Sugar Daddy dating website. He pleaded guilty to eight more counts of fraud.

In 2017 his ex-girlfriend Alexandra Subris was also jailed for fraud and money laundering.

Mr Brudenell previously lived in a mansion at Nawton, near Helmsley, and in an apartment in the village of Scarcroft, near Leeds.