Restaurateur’s credit card ‘used to throw £28,000 party’

A PERSONAL assistant to a friend of Vladimir Putin used her boss’s credit card to fund a £28,000 New Year’s Eve party at a top London hotel, a court has heard.

Tatyana Govorov, 31, allegedly defrauded top restaurateur Arkady Novikov, who owns the Novikov restaurant chain, which has a Mayfair branch in Berkeley Square. Govorov was entrusted with a credit card by Mr Novikov, who owns a home in Chelsea, to pay for his household bills.

Ms Govorov indicated to Westminster magistrates’ court that she would plead not guilty.

Katie Bryan, prosecuting, told the court Ms Govorov was “explicitly” told the card was not for personal use by the celebrity entrepreneur.

It was alleged she spent over £35,000 on herself and told an estate agent that Mr Novikov had agreed to act as a guarantor for her new home in Brockley.

In December 2015 she allegedly used the HSBC card to fund a £28,717 New Year’s Eve bash at the Intercontinental London Park Lane hotel.

Miss Bryan said: “The defendant was a personal assistant to the family.

“Part of her job was to pay household bills upon request and was given a bank card with account in her name.”

Ms Govorov, of Tulse Hill, south London, denies four counts of fraud.

She will next appear at Isleworth Crown Court on Dec 4.

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