Amy Winehouse's dad ordered to pay £1m by court

Amy Winehouse's father must pay just under £1m to two of his daughter's friends after a failed High Court claim over the auctioning of the late singer's items.

Mitch Winehouse also racked up at least £950,000 in his own legal costs in the failed attempt against Naomi Parry and Catriona Gourlay.

He claimed the women had profited from selling dozens of his daughter's items at auctions in the US in 2021 and 2023, accusing them of having "deliberately concealed" their sale.

But Ms Justice Clarke threw out the claim earlier this year, finding that he "knew all along" about the intended sale and only afterwards had begun to pursue them for money in an "aggressive and unpleasant way".

In a judgment on Wednesday, she said: "The claimant chose to bring an inherently weak claim, pursue it aggressively and relentlessly to the end, and make serious and unfounded allegations against the defendants which significantly damaged their reputations, career prospects, financial security and health."

The judge said that, as of April, Parry's costs were estimated to be £715,361, while Gourlay's were £487,132.

She ordered Winehouse to pay interim payments to each of the women – £569,330 to Parry and £394,521 to Gourlay – within the next two weeks.

He must also pay the women's legal costs on an indemnity basis, which means those recovering their costs generally get a higher percentage of what they spent than is usual, and it is often awarded when one side has behaved particularly unreasonably.

Clarke said that in pursuing his claim, Winehouse had "deliberately turned this case into large-scale and expensive litigation, in circumstances calculated to exert commercial pressure on the defendants to settle on his terms".

She added: "The fact that he knowingly and deliberately did this to two young women who had stood faithfully by Amy, and also by him and his family, and who had demonstrated their honesty and integrity over many years, makes his unreasonable conduct particularly serious."

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