Vacuum Billionaire Sir James Dyson In Trouble Over Unauthorized Basement Swimming Pool

According to Yahoo! News, the penalty for such an unauthorized construction project at a Grade I Listed historical estate like the 300-acre one Dyson’s Dodington House rests on is, incredibly, “two years in prison or an unlimited fine.” Hopefully for the sake of Dyson as well as fans of high-tech vacuum cleaners everywhere, it won’t come to that, since he’s now submitted a retroactive  application to the South Gloucestershire Council that will decide on the matter sometime between now and next month. In the meantime, Sir James has this rather foreboding statement from a spokesman for the Council to dwell on until a final decision is made: The entire Dodington House estate, built in the early 1800s and which includes an attached church and orangery, was purchased by Dyson in 2003 for about £20 million, which comes to almost $27 million in American dollars today. Its Grade I listing signifies its “exceptional architectural and historic interest,” which Dyson allegedly compromised by digging his 4.5-foot deep, 8-foot-wide swimming pool in the house’s basement. Back when the estate was open to the public, the basement, which is now home to Dyson’s illegal swimming pool was used as a restaurant. The pool was dug out of the basement’s concrete floor, and is reportedly lined in Carrara marble and includes a stone fountain on one end – if ever there was a basement swimming pool worth going to prison over, this would seem to be the one.