Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay has denied lying in court and "manufacturing" displeasure about his father-in-law using a ghost writer machine to "forge" his signature.
Ramsay is claiming the machine was used without his knowledge to make him liable for the £640,000-a-year annual rental on the York & Albany pub near Regent's Park in London.
He is asking a High Court judge to grant him a declaration that the rental guarantee is not binding because his signature "was not lawfully authorised" when the 25-year lease was signed in 2007.
The chef says his wife Tana's father, Christopher Hutcheson, acted as business manager for the Ramsay group of companies until dismissed in 2010, and used the machine to forge his signature on the agreement.
Ramsay told Chancery Division judge Mr Justice Morgan his "deep and extensive trust in Hutcheson was entirely misplaced" and that his father-in-law defrauded him and the group "of hundreds of thousands of pounds".
Film director Gary Love, who owns the York & Albany, has described Ramsay's allegation as an "absurd" attempt to wriggle out of his rental commitments.
Romie Tager, QC, cross-examined Ramsay on Mr Love's behalf. He suggested the chef was not telling the truth and knew about Mr Hutcheson using the ghostwriter long before the York & Albany deal.
Ramsay told the judge he did not know and was telling the truth.
Mr Tager suggested to him: "When you expressed great displeasure about the signature being forged, that is all manufactured."
Ramsay said: "That is untrue."
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