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MILLIONAIRESS AGED 98 SUED BY BUTLER SHE CALLED A TOAD

Wednesday January 23,2008

By Mark Reynolds

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A BUTLER claiming unfair dismissal was called a monster and a toad by his 98-year-old millionairess boss, a tribunal heard yesterday.

Paolo Sclarandis, 64, added that Lady Jacqueline Killearn, who lives in a £10million mansion in London’s Harley Street and entertained Sir Winston Churchill and Charles de Gaulle, threw her walking sticks at him and complained that he cooked nothing but pasta.

“She was violent on many occasions and called me all the names under the sun,” he said. “I was treated like an animal, it has ruined my life. But I was very kind to her indeed.

I would drive her to Hastings to look around the shops and cooked the majority of her meals when she was at home.

“Very often I would even cook her something when she got in late from an engagement, if she was hungry.

"The kitchen is not even the size of two phone boxes. I had to use that kitchen in conditions that were absolutely unhygienic and appalling.”

But Lady Killearn’s agent Robert Hay told the hearing that the Italian spent more time exporting antiques than caring for his elderly employer.

“Over time, his acquisitions started to fill Lady Killearn’s basement,” he said. “On one occasion, I even delivered a load of his furniture to an address in Turin on my way to Switzerland.”

“His furniture was mainly 1930s pieces that looked somewhat inexpensive, but it seems there must have been a market for it in Italy.”

Mr Hay claimed that the butler was often not on hand to look after Lady Killearn, widow of Britain’s wartime ambassador to Cairo. The worst example of this was when Lady Killearn’s grandson died, Mr Hay told the hearing in Ashford, Kent.

The funeral was to be held in Cornwall but Mr Sclarandis had arranged a business meeting on that day, so he drove her 300 miles to the church and left her, it was alleged.

“The family were deeply upset as Paolo had taken himself off somewhere else,” said Mr Hay. “It’s just one example of how we had a complete lack of control over Paolo.

His priority was always his business, not his client.

“Very often he was not there. He would take himself off to stay in Spain. It was a very flexible arrangement for him. His duties included taking Lady Killearn on a walk before cooking lunch.

Between lunch and dinner, his time was his own. The lady does not usually rise early, so the work would have been far from strenuous. He worked three to five hours a day.”

Turning to Mr Sclarandis, he said: “Lady Killearn is a 98-year-old woman. You were so vicious and unpleasant to her that she was in total despair. I’ve spoken to friends of Lady Killearn’s who will confirm that.

He said that Mr Sclarandis was paid £100 a week to live in the mansion’s basement while working part-time as a self-employed butler.

But Mr Sclarandis, who denies running an antique business, claims that he was employed by Lady Killearn.

The tribunal was adjourned yesterday. If it rules that Mr Sclarandis was self-employed, his unfair dismissal claim will not be allowed to go ahead.