Mitch Winehouse has been ordered by a court to pay close to £1 million to two friends of his late daughter, singer Amy Winehouse. The ruling came after a dispute concerning the auction of items that belonged to the Grammy-winning artist.
As of April, the court estimated Mitch Winehouse's legal costs to be £715,361, while the costs for the two friends, believed to be former assistants, were £487,132. The judge ordered Winehouse to make interim payments of £569,330 to one friend and £394,521 to the other within two weeks. He was also instructed to cover the friends' legal costs on an indemnity basis, a higher percentage of expenses typically awarded when one party has behaved unreasonably.
According to the judge, Winehouse deliberately escalated the case into expensive litigation to exert commercial pressure on the defendants to settle his claim on his terms. The judge characterized his conduct as particularly serious, given that he knowingly and deliberately acted against two women who had been loyal to Amy Winehouse, as well as to him and his family, and who had demonstrated their honesty over many years.