Thai F1 Driver: The mum of the British Formula One driver tipped as the next Lewis Hamilton is a fraudster – jailed for a £7.5million car scam.
Race ace Alex Albon’s mother Kankamol, 47, got six years for swindling cash through a luxury motors pyramid scheme.
She sold Ferraris, Bentleys Bugattis and Rolls-Royces at discounted rates to investors with the promise of selling them on again for quick profits.
But most customers never got theirs – and one car was sold to two different people.
She used money from new victims to pay disgruntled customers – and persuaded others to “roll over” profits.
Victims lost houses and businesses but Kankamol owned a £4 million country pile in Essex with its own moat.
Threw money around
The mum of five also spent £10,000 a year sending her children to private school.
Kankamol – estranged from Alex’s dad Nigel – was arrested in 2008 after going bust.
She admitted false representation and cheating the public revenue.
Jailing her at Ipswich Crown Court in 2012, Judge Rupert Overbury called it a “massive, greed-driven fraud. You persistently defrauded investors.
“The majority never saw a car.”
Det Con Adrian Finbow of Suffolk Police said later: “Her sole motivation was excessive greed – the desire to buy luxury goods and live an opulent lifestyle.”
Her house was repossessed and police even sold off her Mulberry handbags to claw back £60,000.
Alex, 22, rose from kart racing to Formula 2 and last week joined Red Bull’s Toro Rosso team for the 2019 F1 season.
He said: “I really don’t think there are words to describe how excited and proud I am. To be given the opportunity to be in F1 is surreal.”
The London-born racer drives under the flag of his Thai mum, who he lives with in Milton Keynes, Bucks.
Last night Kankamol said: “No comment.”
