Celebrity chef Stephen Terry who was Gordon Ramsay’s best man was left in financial difficulty when husband and wife duo ‘fleeced him out of £150,000 from his award-winning restaurant’
- Nicola Nightingale admitted taking £150,000 from the Hardwick restaurant
- Her husband says he didn’t know money from his wife was obtained fraudulently
A celebrity chef was left in financial difficulty after a married couple he employed siphoned off £150,000 from his restaurant, a court heard.
Stephen Terry, 55, who was Gordon Ramsay‘s best man, failed to spot money was vanishing from his award-winning Hardwick restaurant in Abergavenny, south Wales.
His office administrator, mother-of-four Nicola Nightingale, 47, has admitted fraudulently taking £150,000 by creating fake invoices, taking out loans in the name of the company and inflating her pay.
But her husband 50-year-old Simon Nightingale, who occasionally worked at the restaurant as a chef, denies fraud claiming he didn’t know the money his wife was transferring into his bank account were ‘proceeds of criminal conduct.’
Between May 2018 and February 2020, a total of 55 transactions were paid into Nightingale’s account, adding up to £46,741.57, Cardiff Crown Court was told.
Stephen Terry, 55, who was Gordon Ramsay’s best man, failed to spot money was vanishing from his award-winning restaurant in south Wales
Mother-of-four Nicola Nightingale, 47, has admitted fraudulently taking £150,000 from the Hardwick restaurant while her husband Simon Nightingale, 50, denies knowing the money from his wife was the ‘proceeds of criminal conduct’
Nicola Nightingale began working for the former Michelin-starred chef Stephen Terry at the Hardwick restaurant in Abergavenny in February 2018.
She was hired as an office administrator and was responsible for the finances – including paying wages to the staff.
She resigned from the role on March 29, 2020, just after Boris Johnson announced his first lockdown.
Prosecutor Thomas Stanway said: ‘Nicola Nightingale was in charge of accounts and finances, wages and paying suppliers.
‘But before the lockdown she fraudulently took money and put it into her bank account. She created false names of fake suppliers and inflated the wages she received.
‘She made 55 transactions into her husband’s account but he blamed his wife saying she had access to his accounts. He placed all the blame on her.’
The court heard Nightingale worked at the restaurant as a chef and believed some of the money was his legitimate wages.
But the prosecution say Nightingale was fully aware of what was in his account because of £1,200-a-month payments he made to the couple’s landlady Sarah Thomas.
Simon Nightingale is on trial, charged with stealing money from The Hardwick restaurant, owned by Stephen Terry, near Abergavenny, Wales, UK
Simon Nightingale (pictured) has denied possessing criminal property
Mr Stanway said: ‘Mr Nightingale’s case is that he did not know or suspect that money in his account was the proceeds of criminal conduct.
‘But the prosecution say the defendant knew the money going into his account was fraudulent.’
Stephen Terry, a regular on TV’s Saturday morning kitchen with James Martin, is due to give evidence this afternoon.
Nightingale, of Deal, Kent, denies possessing criminal property and the trial continues.