TELEVISION chef Phil Vickery, who whisked celebrity lover Fern Britton on a romantic trip to Venice on expenses, was ordered yesterday to repay #4359.
Mr Vickery, 38, was sacked after charging the bill for the luxury break to his bosses at the five-star Castle Hotel in Taunton, Somerset. Yesterday, he won his unfair dismissal claim but was ordered to repay #1444 for the trip plus a #2915 personal loan.
Mr Vickery left the #60,000-a-year job in a storm of publicity following the release of a press statement saying he had resigned last June. He said he was forced to go and claimed unfair dismissal against Castle owner Kit Chapman.
He told a tribunal last month he was sacked from the Michelin starred restaurant after becoming a regular on BBC programme Ready Steady Cook. Mr Vickery claimed he fell out with Mr Chapman over his success on the TV show, presented by Britton, who now lives with him in Buckinghamshire.
Mr Chapman maintained Mr Vickery was sacked for spending too much time in the television studio and not enough time in the kitchen where he had been head chef for nine years. They were appalled to discover the #1444 expenses-paid four-day trip to Italy to celebrate Britton's birthday.
Mr Vickery was given three months paid leave to recharge his batteries and was advised to see his doctor and to give up all his work. However, the hearing in Exeter, Devon, was told he continued to work for the hit TV show despite missing two important hotel functions.
Mr Vickery met his bosses to tell them he could not promise 100% commitment and was thinking of taking a year off. The following day, a press statement was released informing of his departure.
Yesterday, the tribunal ruled Mr Vickery had been dismissed unfairly. A remedy hearing will be held next month to ascertain what compensation will be made to him.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article