Accounts for the firm Balladeer Limited show 77-year-old Sir Cliff Richard paid out £439,667 in legal costs
He described the past few years as the most ‘emotionally disastrous’ of his life.
Now, following bitter and protracted legal wranglings, Sir Cliff Richard has seen his personal fortune slump by £1.6 million, new figures for his main company reveal.
Accounts for the firm Balladeer Limited show the 77-year-old singer paid out £439,667 in legal costs as he battled to clear his name following his arrest over allegations he sexually assaulted a man.
The business saw its retained earnings dive from £2.3 million to just under £700,000 from 2016 to 2017, with a note on the accounts explaining that a huge chunk of the loss is down to lawyers’ fees, understood to relate largely to his ongoing battle with the BBC.
It states: ‘Specific legal fees paid by the company during the period 1st May 2014 to 30th April 2016 have been relocated as personal costs of the shareholder and set against the balance owed to him by the company.
‘The total of these costs during that period amounted to £439,667 of which £149,215 related to the year ended 30th April 2016 and £290,452 to the year ended 30th April 2015. The retained earnings brought forward and comparatives have been restated accordingly.’
News of his financial woes come five years after a man made an allegation to the Metropolitan Police, claiming he had been sexually assaulted as a child by the star at Sheffield United’s Bramall Lane football stadium, in 1985.
He battled to clear his name following his arrest over allegations he sexually assaulted a man
Metropolitan Police officers passed the allegation to South Yorkshire Police in July 2014, and his Berkshire home was raided the following month.
Sir Cliff, still worth an estimated £57 million, only discovered his property was being searched after watching detectives in action as it was being broadcast live on the BBC.
He vehemently denied the allegation, and in June 2016 prosecutors announced he would face no charges.
Despite the lack of charges, the singer later claimed the wrongful arrest and subsequent publicity caused ‘profound and long-lasting’ damage.
In May Sir Cliff, who has had 14 number one singles and sold over 250 million records, accepted a pay-out of around £1 million from South Yorkshire Police. He had demanded ‘substantial damages’ over the force disclosing his private information to the BBC.
Speaking about his torrid few years, Sir Cliff has said: ‘It was a disastrous time emotionally, so traumatic I don’t think I slept more than two hours at a time for two years’
He had sued the force’s chief constable and the corporation for breach of privacy and misuse of private information following ‘humiliating’ broadcasts naming him as an alleged child abuser.
His case against the BBC remains ongoing, with the corporation insisting they reported his denials at the time ‘in full’.
In the latest instalment, last month a judge warned Sir Cliff that details of his personal finances might be revealed during the resultant High Court battle with the organisation.
Last year the musician sold his house in Berkshire as a result of the raid, and recently put his beloved £6.4 million Portuguese estate on the market.
Speaking about his torrid few years, Sir Cliff has said: ‘It was a disastrous time emotionally, so traumatic I don’t think I slept more than two hours at a time for two years.
‘It hurt me so much I don’t think I can ever recover personally. I’m living my life again and it’s all in my past – but when I think of what I tried to build up in my career, I know it’s been damaged in places I won’t ever go back to.’