Nigella Lawson's assistants shopped like crazy: prosecutor
Lefteris Pitarakis/APItalian sisters Francesca, (l), and Elisabetta Grillo former personal assistants to Nigella Lawson and art dealer Charles Saatchi, outside London court this week.
There were lavish, shop-'till-you-drop sprees to New York, Paris and Rome, with visits to designer stores including Prada, Miu Miu, Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior.
The personal assistants of celebrity chef Nigella Lawson and millionaire art dealer Charles Saatchi lacked for nothing as they used a corporate credit card to rip off Saatchi for nearly $500,000 prosecutors said Thursday in a British court.
Italian sisters Francesca and Elisabetta Grillo say the popular chef allowed them spend as they liked as long they didn't tell ex-husband Saatchi about Lawson's out-or-control drug habit.
The pair is accused of stealing $480,000 from Saatchi's Conraco Partnership company.
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A #Thanksgiving offering: Butternut with Pecans and Blue Cheese http://t.co/ddyUPLyJfc
- Nigella Lawson (@Nigella_Lawson) November 28, 2013
Lawson, meanwhile, continued to post Twitter notes about Thanksgiving recipes.
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Prosecutors told an Isleworth Crown Court that the women extravagantly indulged themselves by swiping tens of thousands of dollars onto a Saatchi corporate credit card, according to local reports.
Francesca, 35, ran up more than $100,000 in June 2012 with charges that included about $7,600 in flights to New York, where she spent more than $3,000 during a visit to the Miu Miu designer store.
Jurors were told that she also paid $1,000 for a one-night stay at the Soho House Hotel in New York and two days later paid more than $2,300 at the Gansevoort Hotel. In addition, she also withdrew large amounts of cash while she stayed in the city.
Later, she popped into the Ritz in Paris.
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Her sister, Elisabetta, 41, spent thousands at Harrods in London on designers including Calvin Klein.
Saatchi's finance director, Rahul Gajjar, testified Thursday that when he confronted the sisters about their spending, Elisabetta complained there were 'bringing treated worse than Filipino slaves.'
The sisters say they did nothing wrong.
Gajjar said he did not immediately tell Saatchi about the spending because he didn't want to trouble his boss with 'trivial matters,' he said Thursday.
With News Wire Services
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