Celeb chef Gordon Ramsay’s in-laws charged with hacking
Wed 22 Feb 2017
TV chef Gordon Ramsay has accused his father-in-law of hacking into his computer in attempts to access his private emails and files containing personal and company data.
Following a police probe led by detectives from Scotland Yard’s Operation Tuleta, Ramsay’s estranged father-in-law, Chris Hutcheson, 68, has now been charged with hacking into the celebrity chef’s PC.
Hutcheson’s daughter Orlando Butland, 45, and sons Adam, 46, and Chris, 37, have also been charged with conspiracy to hack into his computer files.
The case follows a sour and long-running fall-out between the pair which saw Ramsay, 50, fire Hutcheson as chief executive of his restaurant empire, Gordon Ramsay Holdings in October 2010. Hutcheson had run the business for 12 years prior to the dispute.
Allegations of Hutcheson hacking Ramsay’s computer, and squandering £1.4 million from the business, first emerged in a 2011 High Court battle between the two family members.
Hutcheson and his children are now due to appear before Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 14th March. Ramsay is expected to be a key witness at the hearing.
Hutcheson maintains that the allegations are false. He is also suing the TV chef for unfair dismissal and unpaid wages.
A statement released by London’s Met Police reads: ‘Four people have been charged and requisitioned to appear at court to answer charges under the Criminal Law Act 1977 following an investigation by detectives from Operation Tuleta.’
It continues: ‘The charges follow allegations that between 23 October 2010 and 3 March 2011, they conspired together to cause a computer to access programs and data held in any computer without authority…’
Operation Tuleta was established in 2011 to investigate allegations of hacking following revelations of the News International phone hacking scandal. The Met unit has since focused on tackling the illegal interception of data in the media.
In 2015, celebrity chef Jamie Oliver also faced a cyber threat, this time in the form of ransomware which continued to re-infect his website despite work to eliminate the malicious code.
