Nigella Lawson’s PAs spent £685,000 in ‘greedy free-for-all’, court told

The personal assistants to the TV chef Nigella Lawson racked up bills of £685,000 in a four year “greedy free-for-all” spending up to £50,000 a month on high fashion, cash withdrawals and luxury hotels, a court heard yesterday.

Lawyers for Elisabetta Grillo (41) and her sister Francesca (35) have claimed that Lawson allowed them to spend freely on the account of Lawson's former husband, Charles Saatchi, because they knew she was a daily drug-user taking cocaine, class B drugs and prescription medicines and claimed she didn't want them to share this "guilty secret" with her husband.

Opening the case against the Grillo sisters, who worked for Saatchi and Lawson throughout their 10-year marriage, prosecuting counsel Jane Carpenter said it was “preposterous to think [Lawson and Saatchi] would have allowed such personal expenditure”.

“This trial relates to the high-life lived by Francesca and Elisabetta Grillo,” she said. “The sort of life you may often see portrayed in glossy magazines, but we say they did it not by their own endeavours but in a greedy and fraudulent free-for-all abusing the trust of their employers in a four-year spending spree.”

'Huge internal wrangle'
The court earlier heard claims that the women, who each deny a charge of fraud, were caught in "a huge internal wrangle" between the chef and her ex-husband, as counsel for Elisabetta Grillo, Anthony Metzer QC, submitted an "abuse of process" application to have the case thrown out. Mr Metzer said the case was "a convenient forum for Saatchi and Lawson to reprise a disputed issue between them in relation to their marriage in the criminal courts when the subject of libel, short of anything malicious being alleged, would not be possible."

The judge, Robin Johnson, refused the application and Ms Lawson faces cross examination in the case at Isleworth Crown Court in west London as early as tomorrow. Mr Saatchi is expected to be cross examined today. In pre-trial discussions, which the judge ordered could be reported, Mr Metzer said Mr Saatchi considers Lawson “a criminal because she has been taking class A drugs in her home”. The court also heard Mr Saatchi threatened to sue Ms Lawson for the money the Grillos’ allegedly took if she refused to give evidence in the trial.

When the case opened yesterday, the jury was told that between 2008 and 2012 Francesca Grillo spent £580,000 including an estimated £250,000 on items with price-tags in excess of £2,350. Her older sister allegedly spent £105,000 in the same period. The pair shopped at Chanel, Miu Miu, Louis Vuitton and Prada, travelled internationally, sometimes taking the couple's children abroad alone, and stayed in top hotels. Bills were settled at the end of each month by direct debit from the Coutts bank account used by Mr Saatchi's company, Conarco, the court heard.

Ms Carpenter said Mr Saatchi insisted that when the credit cards were issued it was made clear they were to allow the assistants to make purchases for his own family and only with approval: they were not permitted for personal spending.

The scale of the alleged spending came to light in June 2012 when Rahul Gajjar, Mr Saatchi’s accountant, noticed the monthly outlay had risen from £10,000-£20,000 to over £50,000, the court heard.

Amicable settlement
According to the prosecution, the women admitted they had used the accounts for personal spending and, after a meeting between Francesca Grillo and Mr Saatchi, it was agreed to settle the matter amicably.

But when Mr Gajjarr later presented them with a new deal that they would continue to live for free at the family home in Battersea, south London, but on reduced wages, the women became "agitated and even angry" and the meeting broke up without agreement, the court heard. – (Guardian service)