Now TV chef Nairn hasn’t the cash to refund gift vouchers

CELEBRITY chef Nick Nairn has claimed he does not have enough cash to refund gift vouchers for his doomed cookery school.

Customers forked out up to £250 for an all-day cooking session with the Scot at his Aberdeen academy, which closes on June 30.

The former Ready Steady Cook chef warned last night that gift vouchers would have to be used by that date and there would be no refunds.

The 58-year-old is shutting the cookery school because the oil downturn has left it ‘no longer sustainable’.

Its adjoining Nick’s Pizza Bar will stay open – as will as his cookery school in Menteith, Stirling.

Nairn, pictured, wrote on Twitter: ‘Cook school voucher holders in Aberdeen can you please register asap. Only seven weeks till we close.

‘We have timetabled enough classes for the [number] of vouchers. We want everyone to get a class. Sadly occupancy in first quarter was under 50 per cent... Only pizza after 30/6.’

Follower Mike Neal replied: ‘Or you could refund?’

Nairn responded: ‘I’ve been paying the bills every day. In the first quarter we had 400 unfilled spaces, the money has been spent resourcing classes and waiting for customers. It’s why I’m having to close.’

Nairn launched his Aberdeen school in May 2012.

But announcing the closure last month, he said: ‘We are not immune to the downturn in the North-East economy... we have now reached a point where the Cook School is no longer commercially sustainable.’