I drank so much I don’t know which bar I was in

Mike Ashley’s evidence in £15m bonus trial

SPORTS Direct billionaire Mike Ashley has poured scorn on claims that he made a binding deal in a pub to pay a banker a £15mllion bonus.

The former Rangers shareholder said he was so drunk he couldn’t even remember where he went.

He added: “It was a fun night. If I did say I would pay him £15million, it would have been obvious to everyone – including him – that I wasn’t being serious.”

Investment banker Jeffrey Blue says Ashley promised him £15million in 2013 in the Horse and Groom pub in London if he helped get Sports Direct’s share price to £8.

He says Ashley only gave him £1million, and is suing him at the High Court for £14million.

Ashley agrees that he met Blue and three other financiers in the pub but insists his claims are nonsense. He said: “When we got to the pub we started drinking heavily and consumed a lot of alcohol during the evening.

“We must have had four or five rounds in the first hour.

“I can’t remember the details of the conversations we had, as it was a heavy night of drinking. But I do remember we had a lot of banter.”

Ashley said the night went so well that the group went on to another bar and kept drinking until the early hours.

But he added: “I had drunk so much that I don’t remember which.”

Blue claims Ashley often does business after drinking, and once vomited into a fireplace at a Sports Direct management meeting.

But Ashley insisted: “Serious, serious decisions are not done on drunken nights out.”

The hearing in London has heard that Ashley called billionaire Sir Tom Hunter “a Scottish c***” during talks over a business deal.

The case continues.