Saatchi in High Court battle to sue ex right-hand man

He created, with his brother Mau-rice, the world’s largest advertising agency, before emerging as the godfather of the Britart movement.

But charles Saatchi’s latest endeavours come not in London’s Saatchi Gallery — which he estab-lished to showcase his multi-million-pound collection of work by the likes of damien Hirst and tracey emin — but in the High court.

It’s there, I can disclose, that he has just been granted permission to proceed with claims against a man who was until recently one of his key lieutenants overseeing his art empire, rahul Gajjar.

the High court heard a series of extraordinary accusations against 50-year-old Gajjar. He had, it was told, bought two tesla cars, claim-ing that they were required for transporting smaller pieces of Saatchi’s artwork.

He also allegedly arranged for one of Saatchi’s companies to pay more than £73,000 to Stride tutoring — a ‘tutoring service for school age children’ which Gajjar and his then wife had established as a joint venture.

Gajjar’s wife, it was claimed, had also been paid a total of £38,000 by one of Saatchi’s companies, from which Gajjar himself had taken director’s loans amounting to £190,000, which were paid into his personal bank account.

Gajjar had also spent £63,000 on a company credit card — on car insurance, travel, shopping, pay-ments to amazon and itunes, and on £13,500 of home security improvements. Gajjar agreed that, in various instances, he had used the credit card for personal items, and acknowledged that those sums should be repaid.

But he was adamant that Saatchi orally approved the director’s loans, claiming that ‘as per usual he did not want to know anything about the detail’.

this is one of a number of court actions involving the two men.

Gajjar denies misappropriating company assets and like Saatchi, declines to comment.

Saatchi, 76, has been dating What Not to Wear star trinny Woodall, 55, since 2013, after his divorce from celebrity chef Nigella Lawson. He is so reclusive that he famously never attends parties — even those given by himself.