Gordon Ramsay loses pub rent battle

Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay has lost his High Court battle over being held personally liable for the rent on a London pub he bought.

The pub deal took place when his father-in-law Christopher Hutcheson was at the helm and helping him build his restaurant empire.

The superchef accused Mr Hutcheson in court of using a ghost writer machine, more commonly used by authors to sign books and photographs automatically, to forge his signature on a document which made him the personal guarantor for the £640,000 annual rent for the York & Albany pub near Regent’s Park.

Today Mr Justice Morgan, sitting in London, refused to grant a declaration that the rental guarantee was not binding because Mr Ramsay’s signature “was not lawfully authorised” when the 25 year lease was signed in 2007.

The judge 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.”