Crooks force Albert Roux’s ex-wife out of her £5million home in sub-letting scam
THe former wife of celebrity chef Albert Roux says she has been forced out of her London home by crooks who are raking in thousands of pounds a week by renting it out.
Cheryl Smith says she was ‘tricked’ into letting the top two storeys of her £5million property to someone she claims is a bogus tenant.
The tenants have sub-let the rooms to as many as eight others for £835 a night after advertising them on Airbnb and Booking.com, she says. But she has not received a penny.
The former Mrs Roux went to the police but they said it was a civil matter, advising her to move out of her own part of the property downstairs to avoid any confrontation. The locks on the top floors have now been changed and she cannot get in.
Problems for Miss Smith – who divorced 82-year- old Albert in 2014 – began after she decided to let the top floors of the three-bedroomed property in Belgravia in June.
She thought she was letting her home, which is close to Harrods and Hyde Park Corner, to just one ‘respectable’ tenant. However, the crooks have since been collecting more than £800 a night for the past three months. The property in Wilton Mews has now been taken off both the rental websites but was still occupied this week.
Miss Smith said: ‘ I’m clearly a victim of crime but the police do nothing and these crooks are still renting my home.
‘They changed the locks so I couldn’t get in and nailed shut the garage doors. I’m at my wits’ end.’
Albert Roux has been described as a culinary genius and was the first British-based chef to obtain a Michelin star. He arrived in the country in the mid-Sixties with his brother Michel.
The son of a charcutier from Burgundy, he has two children from his first marriage to childhood sweetheart Monique before they divorced in 2001. He met Zimbabwean born Cheryl, 27 years his junior, at an international wine and food festival. However, they spent two years locked in what were described as ‘unpleasant and often acrimonious’ divorce proceedings.
The wrangle was centred on claims Roux was trying to gain a
‘I can’t get in. I’m at my wits’ end’
substantial slice of his former wife’s personal fortune after their eight-year marriage
However, it was reported two years ago that she had finally walked away from the High Court with her personal wealth intact, with neither party willing to discuss the settlement.
Miss Smith was thought to have a personal fortune of around £10million at the time through a family inheritance and her own business dealings.
At the time a friend of the couple said: ‘Albert got just a fraction of what he had hoped for.’
Another friend added: ‘His list of demands was endless and he is used to getting what he wants. But not this time.
‘Albert made some greedy demands and at one point Cheryl was going to give in and just hand him the money.
‘But she hired a good team of lawyers who advised her well. She emerged victorious. She is thrilled.’ Now the former Mrs Roux may have to turn to lawyers and the courts again in a bid to reclaim her home.
Her case follows a number of Airbnb horror stories in recent years with some 20 per cent of problems said to have occurred when hosts cancel booking with little notice.
Another 15 per cent of problems have been put down to ‘ scams’, with hosts demanding extra money or billing guests for damage that has not occurred.
Other complaints relate to ‘ unsafe and unacceptable conditions’, along with properties ‘not as described’ and fake listings.
A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said: ‘Once a property is let and there is a contract between two parties it is a matter for the civil court not the police if a dispute arises.’