Gordon Ramsay loses £1.6m pub rent battle

Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay has lost a High Court battle over rent payments on a pub in London, landing him with an estimated bill of £1.6 million.

Ramsay signed a 25-year lease on the exclusive York & Albany pub near Regent’s Park in 2007 putting his father-in-law, Christopher Hutcheson, at the helm, as reported by Sky News. 

However the chef accused Mr Hutcheson of using a “ghost writer machine” to forge his signature on a document making him the personal guarantor for the property’s £640,000 annual rent.

Today, Mr Justice Morgan ruled that the signature was binding, despite Ramsay’s claims it was forged.

He said: “I find that when Mr Hutcheson committed Mr Ramsay to the guarantee in the lease of the premises, Mr Hutcheson was acting within the wide general authority conferred on him by Mr Ramsay at all times until Mr Hutcheson’s dismissal in October 2010.”

Justice Morgan added: “Mr Ramsay may now regret the transaction in relation to the premises. He may particularly regret his involvement as a guarantor. He may consider that Mr Hutcheson did a bad deal. However, on any finding, he is not able to say that Mr Hutcheson exceeded his authority in any respect. I hold that Mr Ramsay, acting though his agent Mr Hutcheson, is bound by the guarantee in the lease of the premises.”

Ramsay’s wife Tana said in evidence that she thought the ghost writer machine was being used to sign merchandise when her husband was not available. However Mr Justice Morgan dismissed Ramsay’s claim that he did not know the full extent of its use as “entirely implausible”.

The judge ordered Ramsay to pay the property’s owner, film director Gary Love, an interim payment of £250,000 pending a final settlement of the bill.

Love previously described Ramsay’s claims as an “absurd” attempt to get our of his rental commitments. Ramsay’s legal costs in fighting the case are likely to be in the region of £1 million alone.

Mr Hutcheson acted as business manager for the Ramsay group of companies until 2010 when he was sacked, along with Mrs Ramsay’s brother, Adam, on the grounds of “gross misconduct”.