Estate agent who secretly sold her ex’s Lamborghini handed £300,000 court bill

A woman who secretly sold her millionaire ex’s Lamborghini and blew the money on holidays, clothes, clubbing and alcohol has been hit with a £300,000 court bill after he sued.

Erin Giumba, an estate agent from London, and international property tycoon Ernest Siow enjoyed a ‘brief but intense relationship’ after meeting in a nightclub in Miami in 2022.

Ms Giumba, 28, quit her job and enjoyed the high life with her new boyfriend, ‘constantly partying’ and driving around in a £260,000 Lamborghini Urus SUV, which he bought and put in her name.

But the couple split up in November 2022 and she then sold the green and black supercar, which she insisted had been a £260,000 ‘gift’ when Mr Siow complained.

Ms Giumba is now facing a £300,000 court bill after he sued and a judge agreed she had no right to sell the car as it was his.

During the trial at Mayor’s and City County Court, the judge heard how high-flying Singapore national Mr Siow and Ms Giumba met while both holidaying in Miami in April 2022.

The relationship was ‘brief but intense’, with Ms Giumba quitting her job and working part-time for Mr Siow in his international ‘rent to rent’ property business.

The car, described by Lamborghini as the world’s first super-SUV, with the ‘soul of a super sports car and the functionality of an SUV’, was bought in May 2022 with Mr Siow’s money and registered to Ms Giumba.

Mr Siow claimed it was bought to use in his business, so that he could make a good impression and look ‘wealthy and professional’ when viewing properties in London.

The court heard it was registered to Ms Giumba only because he was not a UK resident.

But the relationship burned out quickly and the couple parted in November that year after a dinner in Mayfair.

She then sold the car, but having run short of money and with no work, she was back home living with her mum in Hertfordshire and working as a part-time estate agent again by February 2023.

Ms Giumba told the court that the Lamborghini – which she described as her ‘dream car’ – had been a gift to her from Mr Siow, who she claimed was planning to buy a McLaren for himself.

‘I initiated the breakup, but wanted to give it another go – he was the one who then said no,’ she told the judge.

‘He was very sweet when we saw each other the final time.

‘He told me I could keep the gifts, including the car. He only asked that he could drive the car when he was in the UK a few times a year, and I agreed with that.’

Mr Siow’s barrister, Jonathan de Rohan, suggested that she had ‘exploited his generosity and kindness’ and sold his car from ‘under his nose’ after they split, before changing her phone number.

‘These are not the actions of a person who honestly believed the car to be their property – rather, opportunistically and without notice, disposing of a very valuable item of property belonging to another,’ he said.

Cross-examining her, he continued: ‘We know that the vehicle was sold on November 24, 2022, for £219,500. That was transferred into your bank account. What happened to it thereafter?’

She replied: ‘I spent a lot of it on holidays, things that have no real value or investment. I was in a very deranged time of my life, and I was just spending stupidly, as I had learned from Ernest.

‘I’m not blaming him. I was just used to doing that.’

She said she had lived a certain type of ‘partying’ lifestyle with Mr Siow and ‘got used to it’, spending much of the money in two months on ‘holidays, clothes, alcohol and clubs’.

Even premium bonds she bought were cashed in and the money spent, she said.

‘I went down a very dark path,’ she said. ‘I am very happy I don’t have that lifestyle anymore.’

Mr Siow’s barrister said he accepted buying gifts for Ms Giumba.

But he said it had been a ‘transient, international, inherently unstable relationship’, so it was unlikely he would have given her something so valuable.

‘It was never intended to be a gift to Ms Giumba, but was to be Mr Siow’s car for when he was in London,’ he said.

‘She can have been in no doubt that the car was not hers and that she was not authorised or entitled to sell it.’

He said she had confused being registered keeper of a car, as she was, with being its actual legal owner.

Giving judgment, Judge Parfitt said: ‘Not telling him about the sale is consistent with her understanding that it hadn’t been a gift to her.

‘It’s a car. It’s very high value. It is on the face of it the unlikely subject of a gift, given the size of the value.

‘It was to be used for his business and was part of their relationship.’

Finding that the car was not Ms Giumba’s to sell, he told her: ‘When you sold the car, that money shouldn’t have gone to you. It should have gone to the claimant.’

He ordered that she pay him the sale price of £219,500, plus two years and four months’ interest at five per cent, plus his legal bills of £60,000.

She responded: ‘I don’t have the money. I can’t pay.’

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