Gordon Ramsay’s father-in-law jailed for hacking his email

GORDON Ramsay’s father-inlaw has been jailed for hacking into the celebrity chef ’s emails to dig up dirt.

Chris Hutcheson, 69, broke into personal files to get back at the TV star after being thrown out of Ramsay’s lucrative business empire.

Hutcheson, whose daughter Tana married Ramsay in 1996, conspired with his sons Adam and Chris Jr to rifle through the chef ’s accounts, searching emails and company systems.

Hutcheson was jailed for six months, while his sons were given four-month suspended sentences. Passing sentence at the Old Bailey, Judge John Bevan said: “The whole episode amounts to an unattractive and unedifying example of dirty linen being washed in public.

“These emails were unsurprisingly embarrassing, damaging and personally distressing to Mr Ramsay.”

Ramsay, 50, once said he and his father-in-law were inseparable, and made him the chief executive of his businesses.

For 12 years, they ran Ramsey’s restaurants together but in 2010 tensions over missing money and serial womanising led to Hutcheson being fired.

Prosecutor Julian Chris- topher said: “For a period of five months following the dismissal, he ( Hutcheson) repeatedly accessed the company computer network for the email accounts of Mr Ramsay and Mrs Ramsay and a number of employees of the company in order to obtain material that might embarrass Mr Ramsay or be useful in the ongoing dispute.”

He said personal items were taken, including photos “provided to the press which led to considerable intrusion into the privacy of the family”.

In February 2011, Hutcheson hacked the system 600 times while his son Adam did so 282 times. When they were found out, Hutcheson emailed Chris Jr: “Guess we have been rumbled. Bit late though.”

In April, Hutcheson and his sons admitted conspiring to unlawfully access the computer system of Gordon Ramsay Holdings Ltd and email accounts of its employees. Their convictions come after a series of civil court disputes.

During a high court battle in 2011, Ramsay accused Hutcheson of hacking his personal and company files and plundering £ 1.42 million to fund a second family.

He claimed Hutcheson had used company funds to give his mistress £5 000 a month, put his wife and son Adam on the payroll and wrote himself £20 000 cheques.

Tana, 42, who has four children with Ramsay, cut ties with her parents after finding out her father had kept his affair secret from her for 30 years.

Specialists found stolen passwords had been used to access Ramsay’s files using a computer in the basement of the company’s headquarters.

Prosecutors believe Hutcheson suspected Ramsay had leaked a photo of his mistress Sara Stewart as he hacked into an email called “Sara Stewart: Defence”.

In 2012, the pair reached a £2m truce after settling the court claim, but the matter was reported to Scotland Yard.

Judge Bevan said that the Ramsays “no longer support the prosecution”. He added: “The family’s desire to put an end to the confrontations of the last seven years or so, and seek reconciliation, is to be encouraged.

“The falling out which occurred was prolonged and bitter. Doubtless blame lies in all directions. But my focus must be solely on the aspects of the criminal offence, computer misuse, or hacking.” – Daily Mail

Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay, with his wife Tana, incurred the wrath of Josh Hutcheson after he fired him.