'I am committing career suicide by standing up to Charles Saatchi', witness tells court

 
16 December 2013
WEST END FINAL

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An accounts assistant today told a jury she was “committing career suicide” in speaking out against Charles Saatchi.

Sharrine Scholtz said most employees of the multi-millionaire art collector were “too scared” to stand up to him.

She denied coming to Isleworth Crown Court to “assist” the two personal assistants accused of defrauding Mr Saatchi and his then wife Nigella Lawson of £685,000.

South African born Ms Scholtz wiped tears from her eyes when she told how she had worked up to 19 hours a day working for Mr Saatchi’s Conarco before being “forced out” after being accused of stealing from petty cash and taking unauthorised taxis.

“I felt perhaps I would be standing here instead of Lisa sand Francesca (Grillo, the defendants),” she told the jury.

Challenged by prosecutor Jane Carpenter why she had decided to give evidence for the Grillo sisters, Ms Scholtz replied: “I have everything to lose from standing up here and nothing to gain by assisting them. I am speaking the truth.

“I believe that most people would be too scared, there are various employees who are working long hours too who are too scared to talk about it. Essentially I am committing career suicide by standing up against Mr Saatchi.”

Ms Scholtz said she had worked as an accounts assistant from the end of 2004 until June 2009 in an office in Mr Saatchi’s home in Eaton Square, Belgravia.

She had had no experience of accountancy but was trained by finance director Rahul Gajja to scrutinise transactions by the personal assistants on company credit cards.

She told the court there had been no differentiation between personal expenditure and business expenses and that everything had been authorised.

The Grillo sisters are accused of using company credit cards to splash out on holidays and designer clothing for themselves. They say that the TV chef had authorised everything they had spent in the hope that they would keep her “guilty hidden secret” of drug abuse from her then husband.

Ms Scholtz told the court that in 2009 she had been suddenly confronted by Mr Gajja and Mr Saatchi with a “compromise agreement” she had to sign within 24 hours.

She said this served as a confidential pay off so that she would “effectively go quiet”.

At the time she said she had been off sick with stress and depression caused by the long hours she worked - sometimes from 6am to 1am.

“I signed it feeling under threat. They accused me of taking money from petty cash. There is no truth in that,” she said.

She said that when she was hired Mr Gajja had told her she could take a taxi home paid for by the company if she had been working late and in 2009 he claimed all her taxis had been unauthorised.

But Ms Carpenter said that Ms Scholtz’s performance for the company had deteriorated over the previous years which was why she had been asked to leave.

The prosecutor said that the accounts assistant had used Mr Saatchi’s office on business matters relating to a new gallery she had been setting up herself.

Later Francesca Grillo told the court that she always considered Miss Lawson to be “very open and very caring” towards her and was forever giving her presents and little gifts.

Francesca,35, and Lisa , 41, Grillo, both of Bayeswater, have pleaded not guilty to fraud by abuse of position between 2008 and 2012.

The case continues.

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