And finally… shaken not stirred

The actor had himself been questioned over the affair before investigations into him were dropped in 2014.

However, lawyers Luis Juega Garcia, Hector Diaz-Bastien and Ramon Asesio Bolea have now all been jailed following a long-running trial in Malaga.

Juega, was given nine years while Diaz-Bastien, the founder of law firm Diaz-Bastien & Truan, and Bolea were each given seven.

The three have also been ordered to repay more than £14 million in unpaid company tax, along with two other offenders including one referred to in the past as the actor’s wife Micheline Roquebrune’s Marbella banker.

Bastien founded the law firm that Sir Sean, 86, used when he sold his Marbella home in 1999, and Bolea and Garcia were partners.

The house was later demolished and more than 70 flats, later sold for an estimated £45 million, were built in its place in defiance of planning regulations restricting development on the site to only five flats.

The deal led to a high-profile investigation dubbed Goldfinger after the 1964 James Bond film in which Sir Sean starred.

Sir Sean was asked questions about his relationships with Andalucian politicians during the Spanish court inquiry into the sale.

However, Miss Roquebrune was ordered to stand trial in November last year for allegedly aiding and abetting a complex operation to defraud the Spanish Treasury.

She has previously dismissed the allegations as “nonsense”.

A date for the hearing is expected to be set soon.