Broken, wheelchair-bound Freddie Starr died a recluse owing ‘thousands of pounds’ after fleeing to Spain

FREDDIE Starr went from one of TV’s highest paid stars to an overweight recluse who used a wheelchair while living in Spain after fleeing the UK mired in debt.

The body of the comic hellraiser, 76, was found naked by his Spanish carer on the floor of his two-bedroom townhouse in Mijas, Malaga yesterday.

His fourth wife Sophia Lea, 39 years his junior, left him in 2015, the same year Starr fled to Spain after losing a £1m libel case against sex accuser Karen Ward.

He was forced to sell his £700,000 UK home, after being arrested four times as part of operation Yewtree despite never being charged over claims he put his hand up Ward’s skirt in 1974.

The comedy wild man moved to the Costa del Sol claiming to be "broke and disabled" where he built up more debt and became a virtual recluse, neighbours have revealed.

On his arrival to Mijas, he told local media he'd "shook hands with the devil" while showing off the scars from his 2011 quadruple heart bypass.

Speaking about his poor health, he said: “I can’t tour any more because I’ve got a lung condition and I’m in a wheelchair a lot.

“Freddie Starr the entertainer is dead.”

He likened Operation Yewtree — the police probe into historical sex offences launched in the wake of Jimmy Savile’s crimes — to the “Salem witch hunt” and said he had “hit rock bottom”.

Starr added: “I feel suicidal at times because I don’t think things are going to get any better for me.”

Freddie, who was born in Merseyside in 1943, was being threatened with lawyers after refusing to pay a four-figure debt to community managers for unpaid water bills in Spain.

Residents told today how he stopped talking to them after the president of the 280-property complex tried to get him to pay up.

Ive shook hands with the devil

Starr on his arrival in Spain

One of his neighbours at his two-bed £170,000 home said Starr would “look the other way” on the rare occasions he saw him because of the debt feud.

Another neighbour added: “He never mixed with anybody in the all the time he lived here.

“I saw him walking up and down once or twice but he never communicated with anyone.

“There’s four communal pools on the complex but I never saw him use any of them.

“My feeling was he wouldn’t talk to anyone in the community and it was deliberate and to do with the unpaid bills.

“He refused to discuss the debt with the management committee and that had left the community with no option but to go through the law courts to seek resolution.

“The lawyers had been trying to contact him before his death but he never responded to anything.”

Another local who knew Freddie said the reaction to his death within the residential community was “shame, nice bloke.”

Speaking about the comedian’s life in Spain, they added: “He had a lady that lives in the property as a carer.

“She didn’t appear to want to speak English but she must have done because Freddie didn’t speak Spanish.

“I don’t think he had any friends in the community.

“Freddie’s place was a two-bed townhouse. It would have been worth around £170,000 tops. “

The resident said that reclusive Freddie, who had a heart attack in 2010, rarely left his home.

He said: “It had a patio out the front with pot plants on it. He didn’t normally come out of the property much.

SNUBBED LOCALS

“He wasn’t in good shape and he was pretty much of a recluse.

“It was around six months ago that I last saw him. He had a car when he first moved here but that disappeared a while back.”

Another local told The Sun: “Freddie hadn’t looked well for some time and rarely ventured out.

“Whenever he appeared recently his head would be down and he’d be smoking.”

BATTLED DEMONS

One of Freddie Starr’s last performances was a shambling karaoke Elvis impression at a bar in Fuengirola. Videos of a bloated Freddie in a T-shirt and shorts belting out hits with locals surfaced on Facebook.

A pal said: “He was mortified when that footage got out and realised how far he’d fallen. He wasn’t his old self after that.”

The neighbour added: “It was such a sad end from someone who’d been loved by millions.”

A well-placed local source said he had been found naked on the floor inside his home.

Police sources said there was nothing to suggest the death of the fallen comic, who suffered asthma and had a quadruple bypass following his heart attack, was suspicious.

An autopsy is expected to take place later today at the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Malaga to rule out the possibility it was the result of a crime.

Civil Guard officers were called along with paramedics to his home although the first ambulance is believed to have taken some time to reach the scene.

His body was taken away just after 8pm local time after he was certified dead by a doctor.

We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at tips@the-sun.co.uk or call 0207 782 4368 . We pay for videos too. Click here to upload yours