Millionaire headbutted ex-friend in Michelin-star restaurant
He lashed out over £120,000 loss
A SCOTS tycoon headbutted a former colleague and friend in a Michelin-starred restaurant after a business deal left him more than £100,000 out of pocket.
Mark Emlick’s victim was left spitting blood following the attack.
Emlick, the 55-year-old chairman of Edinburgh-based Consensus Capital Group, lashed out after being told to ‘jog on for your money’, a court heard yesterday.
He was given a 12-month community order and told to carry out 80 hours of unpaid work.
Emlick – who once appeared on Sky TV’s Who’d Be A Billionaire? show, enjoying a £9,000-a-day Botswana safari – had previously admitted assaulting Marcus Watson on October 17 last year.
They had been at the Nordicthemed Aquavit restaurant at St James’s Market, near London’s Piccadilly Circus.
Emlick – who now lives in a £3million townhouse in Battersea, south-west London – had drunk four gin and tonics, Westminster Magistrates Court was told.
He had invested £250,000 in a business venture with neighbour Mr Watson, a friend of 20 years and professional associate for seven years, but lost half his money when the firm folded.
Emlick’s lawyer, Andrew Copeland, said CCTV cameras captured the assault.
The court heard: ‘You can see the head going to the face, the nose area. The explanation is his loss of £120,000, and being told to “jog on for your money” is what provoked him.
‘They are at the bar and there is a conversation for a minute and a half. Something must have been said by Mr Watson for the defendant to react the way he did, which was purely momentary.
‘It is somebody he knows, a friend who he feels has exploited this situation and the company’s been wound up and he knows he is not going to get the money.’
Magistrate Joanna Barley told Emlick: ‘It was a short incident and it was a single blow. However, it did happen in a public place and alcohol was involved.
‘It was a headbutt, a very serious way of hurting someone.’
She also ordered him to pay £85 costs and an £85 victim surcharge. Prosecutor Aislinn Rice told the court Emlick’s conversation with Watson turned ugly around 9pm.
She said: ‘He headbutted him to the left side of his face, causing a laceration to the inside of the mouth.’
Mr Watson – who had enjoyed holidays with Emlick and their partners – told police: ‘I had cuts and abrasions and bleeding from my teeth cutting the inside of my mouth.’ He was taken to the A&E department of Chelsea and Westminster Hospital.
Mr Watson said: ‘I have been anxious about going out after the attack. He lives in the same road, we are near the same shops and I’ve lost my confidence.
‘My family see that I am anxious and I’m concerned about bumping into him. He has meetings in the area and I’m embarrassed about being attacked and not being able to defend myself.’ Emlick initially tried to lie about the attack, telling police: ‘I turned my head to talk to Mark. I did not realise how close he was. It was not deliberate, it was accidental.’
Mr Copeland told the court Emlick – whose real estate and asset management firm is based in Edinburgh’s Craigmillar Park – was disappointed their deal had gone ‘sour’.
He added: ‘Mr Watson elevated his salary and bought himself a new Range Rover.’
After sentencing, Emlick said: ‘What started as a disagreement over my lost investment in Adoreum Partners has unfortunately escalated into an argument and a momentary loss of control on my part, which I very much regret and for which I apologise completely.’
In 2015 Emlick was fined £700 at Perth Sheriff Court for threatening a woman and ordering her to have an abortion.
‘Serious way of hurting someone’