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The ex wife of Hollywood actor Colin Firth was forced to close down her fashion firm after an employee stole £500,000 from her business forcing it into financial ruin

Colin Firth’s ex wife Livia Guiggioli was left with no choice but to close down her once lucrative fashion firm after her Head of Finance stole £500,000 in a fraud plot. Stavros Pavlou, 64, is now facing prison for his crimes after stealing the money from Livia’s sustainable fashion consultancy brand called Eco-Age Lt, over a period of two years.

The consultancy firm, which was based in west London, advised well known fashion retailers on how to make their products more sustainable as part of combating an issue that is taken seriously across the entire world. The business was founded in 2007.

Last July, just three months after Pavlou stopped taking money from the company, Livia, who was married to the actor for 22 years until 2019, announced that the firm was “tragically” closing down due to a “financial crisis.”

At the time, she reportedly explained that the crisis was “targeted by criminals” and it has now come to light that she was subtly referring to her former employee.

According to the Daily Express, a court heard yesterday that head of finance Pavlou admitted the fraud when interviewed by police after his arrest in May.

He is now facing a prison sentence for his act of fraud. Prosecutor Edward Aydin told Highbury Corner Magistrates: “Whilst working as head of finance, he stole around £500,000 from his employer. The fraud involved large amounts of documents and files.”

Appearing in court wearing a grey suit, Stavros admitted to one count of fraud by abuse of position.

His defence solicitor Paul Oliver explained: “This is clearly a matter which needs to be sent to the Crown Court for sentence. He was released under investigation in 2024, and I ask to grant him bail. There have been no attempts by him to contact the employer. He is a man of previous good character.”

However, Magistrate Rod Barr told Mr Pavlou: “You have pleaded guilty to this charge, but this matter is too serious to be sentenced in the magistrates’ court. We are sending your case to the crown court where you will be sentenced. You are free to leave the court today, but you must go to Wood Green Crown Court on the date you are told to.”

He added: “If you don’t come back to court at the time, you will be committing a separate offence, and a warrant will be issued for your arrest.”

Stavros Pavlou was given unconditional bail and is set to appear at Wood Green Crown Court when a date has been arranged by court officials.

Speaking about the closure of her much-loved company, she explained last year: “We began 17 years ago with a family shop in West London selling the latest in eco lifestyle products. Nobody would have predicted our trajectory.”

She added: “We are incredibly grateful to those who supported us from the beginning and proud of the work that took us to become a globally recognised consultancy and communication agency and for the role we played to change the landscape of sustainability globally.”

Despite her split from Colin, Livia claims that they have maintained a “wonderful relationship.”

In an interview with Hello! magazine, she said: “We’re always together. Colin and I have a wonderful relationship. We have worked a lot on that, and on keeping the family together. I have a partner, he has a partner and we’re all together all the time. It’s an extended, crazy family.”

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Scottish singer Lulu has said that her first two relationships didn’t progress past kissing after the way she was raised made her see sex as ‘shameful’

Lulu has opened up about her complicated relationship with intimacy, admitting she was “afraid of sex” while rising to fame in the 1960s.

The singer, now 76, looks back on her early years in a candid extract from her upcoming memoir If Only You Knew, which will be released on September 25 to coincide with her latest tour.

In it, she explains how her upbringing and family dynamics left her uncomfortable around the subject of sex around the time when she became a household name after the success of her 1964 hit Shout.

“I wasn’t a fan. I was a musician. But, the truth is, I was also afraid of sex,” she wrote. “It had never been openly discussed in my home and Betty [her mother] had made it seem almost shameful, one of the many threads that coursed through the black rage between my parents.

“I wanted love, I wanted romance. I was just scared of the reality, so I spent my time wrapped up in fantasy, in love with the idea of love.”

Despite her fears, Lulu makes it clear she never went through negative experiences in the bedroom. She says her fear stemmed from the taboo surrounding sex during her teenage years.

She wrote: “There was one area in particular which made me feel very self-conscious: sex. It felt like a black hole pulling every-one around me in while I floated around in deep space watching them get swallowed up, which fed my feeling of being a step apart.”

She added that while she had boyfriends – including Alex Bell from her band The Luvvers and Herman’s Hermits frontman Peter Noone – she kept things PG.

“None of it went much further than a goodnight kiss because I’d skipped so much school that human biology had completely passed me by,” she said.

“And, in those days, we didn’t do the teenage conversations that you see in Hollywood films today which might have started to reveal its secrets. I didn’t have a clue.”

Her memoir also touches on her youthful crush on Eric Clapton, admitting she once threw a party for the chance to see him. “My crush on Eric, however, still burned strong and I remained desperate to see him.

“So, one night, I threw a party and invited everyone – the Beatles, the Who, the Animals and Cat Stevens – hoping he’d come too,” she confessed.

“Nervously waiting for him to arrive, I kept an eye on the door until he finally walked in… But, late that night, we ended up outside smoking and, heart palpitating, I tried to act cool.”

On a professional level, Lulu has recently been busy championing mental health awareness. Earlier this year she launched Lulu’s Mental Health Trust, which recently held its first sponsored walk.

She told The Mirror: “The process of writing my memoir opened my eyes to the role that mental health has played in my life. When I was first coming into the industry we didn’t talk about it! But it’s so important, and I want to give back.”