Chris Hutcheson, along with his sons Adam Hutcheson and Chris Hutcheson Jr, planned to infiltrate the restaurateur’s emails between 23 October 2010 and 31 March 2011 to discover financial details and other information. His sons were both given four-month prison sentences, suspended for two years.
Jailing Hutcheson Sr at the Old Bailey, Judge John Bevan QC said: “The whole episode of five months amounts to an unattractive and unedifying example of dirty linen being washed in public.”
Hutcheson Sr, who is the father of Ramsay’s wife, Tana, has been involved with a high-profile public falling out with the TV chef. In 2010 he was sacked from Gordon Ramsay Holdings after 12 years with the restaurant group, with a public row between Ramsay and Hutcheson Sr ensuing.
In 2012 Gordon Ramsay Holdings (GRH) reached a settlement with Hutcheson Sr and three other members of his family over a claim that they were unfairly dismissed from the company, bringing to an end the two-year dispute. Hutcheson Sr claimed he was pushed out of the company and subjected to a ‘public hanging’ by Ramsay who responded by writing an open letter to his mother-in-law Greta via the Evening Standard, where he accused his father-in-law of being ‘manipulative and controlling’.