Foxtons property tycoon sues garage after £1m vintage Lamborghini bursts into flames – with his son inside

Jon Hunt’s son was at the wheel of rare vehicle during incident

The billionaire founder of Foxtons estate agents is suing a garage which serviced his £1m Lamborghini – after the car blew up while his son was at the wheel.

Jon Hunt says his son had driven less than a mile from the garage in his Lamborghini Miura SV after picking it up from a routine service in April 2013 when it exploded in flames.

Mr Hunt’s son was not hurt, but the rare 1971 supercar, which was worth almost £1m and was the world’s fastest road car when it was first built, was reduced to a fire-blackened wreck on the A40 in Acton.

Now Mr Hunt, whose wealth was rated at £1.07bn by the Times Rich List this year, is suing luxury car specialists HR Owen Dealerships Ltd, trading as Lamborghini London.

He is claiming £700k compensation for the wrecked car, plus additional damages for storage and “loss of enjoyment” of the vehicle – one of only 764 ever built.

The entrepreneur, 61, is best known as the founder of UK estate agency Foxtons, which he sold for £390m in 2007.

In a writ lodged at the High Court, Daniel Scarrott, for Mr Hunt, says that HR Owen “held itself out as having particular expertise in the repair and servicing of Lamborghini motor vehicles”.

The firm “agreed to inspect, assess and service the vehicle” the writ states, adding that it owed “the skill of an expert Lamborghini repairer”.

A spokeswoman for HR Owen said: “This is a case between two insurance companies, but HR Owen continue to do business with Jon Hunt.”