Celebrity TV chef Gordon Ramsay has dragged his father-in-law to court for “forging his signature” on a £640,000-a-year gastropub lease.
Ramsay’s father-in-law Chris Hutcheson was accused of using an autograph-writing machine to reproduce the chef’s signature.
Hutcheson was sacked as CEO of Gordon Ramsay Holdings after he was accused of embezzling up to £1m. He was reportedly paid £2m in settlement.
However, Ramsay’s lawyers found out a year later that the chef’s signatures on the lease of the York & Albany pubs had been made through a electronic device.
Ramsay says he shouldn’t be liable to pay lease on the gastropub and has asked the owner of the Regents Park pub Gary Love to release him from the lease.
He told the court: “The personal guarantee was a shock.
“The company was still in the hook for the lease but what was devastating for my wife and I was the fact we were guaranteeing it until 2033.
“Chris was removed in 2010. Several documents had been forged. I can pinpoint a forged signature.”
Love in turn accused Ramsay of knowing that the agreement was signed by a machine and that he’s launched a legal bid to get a rent reduction.
According to the Mirror, Love’s barrister asked: “Other than this lease, was there a single deal your father-in-law signed with the machine that you were less than happy with?”
Ramsay replied: “He never had permission to sign any deal with the machine.”
The case continues.
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