Ramsay Wife Tells Of Dad's 'Distressing Fraud'
The celebrity chef's wife gives evidence about claims her father defrauded her husband by forging his signature.
Monday 24 November 2014 18:13, UK
Gordon Ramsay's wife has told a judge that discovering her father and brother were "systematically defrauding" her celebrity chef husband was "extremely distressing".
Tana Ramsay made the allegation while giving evidence in legal action in which Mr Ramsay accuses her father, Christopher Hutcheson, of using a ghostwriter machine to forge the chef's signature.
Ramsay claims the machine was used without his knowledge to sign his signature on a document which made him personally liable for the £640,000 annual rent on the York and Albany pub in London.
The chef is asking a High Court judge to rule the rental guarantee is not legally binding and was not lawfully signed in 2007.
Film director Gary Love, who owns the York and Albany, has alleged that Ramsay's claim is "absurd", adding it was an attempt to escape the rental commitments.
Mr Hutcheson was the business manager for the Ramsay group of companies until 2010, when Ramsay sacked him and Tana's brother Adam.
Mrs Ramsay said in her witness statement: "The knowledge that my father and brother had been systematically defrauding my husband was extremely distressing to me."
She said she was aware of the use of the ghostwriter machine. But she added that she believed the machine was used for signing merchandise when her husband was unavailable.
She said: "It did not even occur to me that the machine might be used to sign Gordon's signature on anything else."
In cross-examination, she told Chancery Division judge Mr Justice Morgan: "Since the departure of my father and my brother from the business it has been a huge upheaval.
"But certainly myself, I feel very comfortable with what the company has become. Whilst not immediately, it is certainly more transparent and on a much more solid basis."
Earlier in the trial, that his "deep and extensive trust in Hutcheson was entirely misplaced".
He alleged Hutcheson had defrauded him and the group "of hundreds of thousands of pounds".
Romie Tager QC cross-examined Ramsay on Mr Love's behalf. He suggested the chef was not telling the truth and knew about Hutcheson using the ghostwriter.
Ramsay told the judge he was telling the truth.
"The fact is you didn't care whether the machine was used to write the signature and you don't really care today," Mr Tager said.
Ramsay said: "That is untrue. I brought this case to court because of the shock and unhappiness of being somewhat stitched on a guarantee my wife and I not were not a party to."
The case continues.