Two friends of late British singer Amy Winehouse who sold items belonging to the star worth around £730,000 ($970,000) “took advantage” of her father’s forgetfulness, a lawyer said Tuesday at London’s High Court.
The singer’s former stylist Naomi Parry and her friend Catriona Gourlay sold dozens of items including a black Armani bag and dresses Winehouse wore on her last tour in June 2011.
Amy’s father, Mitch Winehouse, has brought a UK lawsuit against the pair, alleging they did not have the right to sell the items, which were sold between November 2021 and May 2023.
Lawyer Henry Legge, acting for Winehouse, said it was claimed in an email to the late singer’s father and his ex-wife Janis that the sale involved just a “few things”, a description the attorney said was “grossly misleading”.
The court heard earlier that the two women sold 150 objects that had belonged to Winehouse.
Parry realised that Mitch Winehouse was in her words “lazy” about keeping tabs on such matters, Legge said.
“It is clear that they took advantage of his (Mitch Winehouse’s) forgetfulness,” he added.
The lawyer also hit back at suggestions he said came from the defendants’ side that Mitch Winehouse was in some way “venal”, or dishonest, and that the lawsuit was “motivated by that”.
He described it as one of a number of “cheap shots”.
The British singer-songwriter, who enjoyed meteoric global success, died in July 2011 from alcohol poisoning, aged just 27.
Winehouse was a distinctive figure with her beehive hairdo, heavy black eye makeup, multiple tattoos and smoky voice.
She shot to international fame with her Grammy Award-winning 2006 album “Back to Black”, which included the track “Rehab”, charting her battle with addiction.
According to court documents, her father believed that any sums collected from the sales organised by Los Angeles-based Julien’s Auctions would be due to him.
The auctioneers had also been told that a third of the proceeds would be donated to the Amy Winehouse Foundation -- a charity set up in the singer’s name working with young people to foster hope and self-reliance.
However, Winehouse’s team have accused the women of failing to donate the share of proceeds to the foundation.
Ted Loveday, lawyer for Gourlay, said at an earlier hearing that most of the objects had been given or lent to the two women by the singer, even if there was no proof.
“If a 19-year-old gives a scarf or a pair of earrings to their friends, no one signs a contract,” he told the court on Monday, stressing the singer’s generosity.
Parry’s lawyer Beth Grossman has said previously the two “women are not thieves and they are not dishonest”.
The case is wrapping up and a judgement will be given at a later date.
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