Colin Chapman - DeLorean Scandal

DeLorean Scandal

From 1978 until his death, Chapman was involved with the American tycoon, John DeLorean, in his development of a stainless steel sports car, to be built in a factory funded by the British government. Approximately £10 million of British taxpayers money, equivalent to £40 million in 2010, went missing.

Chapman died before the full deceit unravelled but, at the subsequent trial of Fred Bushell, the Lotus accountant, the judge insisted that, had Chapman himself been in the dock, he would have received a sentence "of at least 10 years".