Mr Mosley, former president of the FIA, the Formula 1 motorsport body, effectively went to war with the tabloid newspaper after an undercover reporter filmed him engaging in bizarre sexual practices. He sued the newspaper for breach of privacy, winning £60,000 damages in 2008. It now appears he has also won a final battle, having watched the newspaper closed over the phone hacking saga.
Sources have confirmed that behind the scenes, Mr Mosley, 71, who is a multi-millionaire, has continued his campaign against the News of the World by providing financial backing to claimants whose mobile telephones may have been hacked by Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator working on behalf of the newspaper.
A source told The Sunday Telegraph yesterday: “It’s true to say that Max has been funding a number of cases. Wealthy celebrities have not needed his assistance but there are a number of cases where the claimants do not have much money and could face losing a lot if News International were somehow to win some of those.
“He has been guaranteeing the court actions go ahead by putting money into an account so if somebody does lose a case against the News of the World, he will pay all the court costs. He has also paid court fees for things like lodging court papers which can be extremely costly.”
It means that claimants have been able to push cases all the way and obtain full disclosure from the newspaper group without risking massive legal costs. It is understood that Mr Mosley contacted lawyers working on cases, offering his financial support.
He was accused of engaging in a Nazi-style orgy by the News of the World in 2008. The claim so incensed Mr Mosley, the son of the British fascist leader Oswald Mosley, that he pursued the case through the courts.
Mr Justice Eady found that the sex party did not have any Nazi overtones. The scale of the damages was a record for a privacy case, and in many ways set a benchmark for the phone hacking claims that have subsequently followed.
A spokesman for Mr Mosley refused to comment.
