Multi-millionaire couple ‘sacked gay housekeeper by text after he let his boyfriend stay over’
A judge also heard the couple were unhappy that Robin Pyke used their cars personally while they were away
A MULTI-MILLIONAIRE couple have been sued by their live-in housekeeper who claimed they sacked him unfairly.
Robin Pyke fell out with the lady of the house when she discovered his boyfriend was staying at the £10m seven-bedroom mansion without her knowledge and that he was looking after someone else's dog at the property and charging the animal owner £500 a week.
He was eventually sacked for being 'over-familiar' and refusing to drive the millionaire banker's mother-in-law to Heathrow Airport on his day off.
An employment tribunal heard that Mr Pyke was a former gardener at the luxury home of financier Maximilian Gottschalk and was then appointed house manager when Mr Gottschalk and his company director wife, Jane, moved to Hong Kong to live, leaving their Henley-on-Thames home empty.
The globe-trotting couple travel between London, where they brought a home from singer and former Take That member, Robbie Williams, and other homes in Hong Kong, Ibiza, Switzerland and Henley.
Highly successful Mrs Gottschalk has appeared in feature interviews in The Times and Sunday Times newspapers regarding her international Jax coconut water company.
The couple flew back to the UK for the tribunal hearing in Reading, Berkshire, where they and Mr Pyke gave evidence about life at his home, where the gay man had worked for 13 years with other staff.
The judge heard that the millionaire Gottschalk assumed their staff 'don't count the hours' and expected them to 'go the extra mile' when working for them at the Georgian mansion which they use as their main UK residence.
However, their former house manager claimed he was unfairly dismissed by the family after they placed him under so much stress he was forced to seek professional help before he eventually received a text stating 'f**k off and leave my house'.
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Mr Pyke was tasked with looking after the Gottschalk mansion which sits at the end of a long driveway with its own fountain and tennis courts.
Max Gottschalk is a high-powered German-Swiss banker and is the only son of Joachim Gottschalk who floated family firm Gottex for $1.9 billion in 2007.
The couple spend most of their time in Hong Kong, where their five children attend a Chinese-speaking school but spend Christmas and the summer holiday in Henley.
The tribunal was told that Mr Pyke had worked at the mansion for 13 years, first as a gardener but became house manager for the couple in September 2014.
He told the panel that towards the end of his employment he could not keep up with the work the millionaire couple demanded of him.
He told employment judge Andrew Gumbiti-Zimuto he had expected to stay working at the home for a long time but was unexpectedly and abruptly dismissed.
He lived-in at the property and told the tribunal the dismissal made him homeless.
"I think I have been loyal and given everything for 13 years" he said.
"At no point had I ever been questioned about my trustworthiness and I think I did the job absolutely to my full ability. I think I did everything I could from my personal capabilities. I think I did everything professionally and correctly at the time with the information I had.
"When things went wrong I tried to contact them to resolve it. Some of the issues were resolved, most weren't. There was never any threat my job was going to be affected or on the line."
However, the Gottschalks said Mr Pyke had 'breached their trust' and in a witness statement said he was not trustworthy or willing to help.
The couple raised a number of issues they had with the way Mr Pyke conducted himself which they said led to his dismissal.
Mrs Gottschalk said there were issues with 'cleanliness in the house and his over familiarity'.
She added: ";We wanted him to be much more professional in his role. Overall complacency was spoken about."
However Mr Pyke said Mrs Gottschalk had once told him he should describe himself as a 'manny' on his CV because he was so good with the family's children.
"Manny is surely a play on words with the fact that I'm gay," he said.
Mrs Gottschalk responded angrily: "That's really clutching at straws, manny is a well-known term. That's clearly clutching at straws.
"It was a domestic environment I tried to make it as comfortable as possible, it was his behaviour in the house around us."
When the couple came to spend Christmas in Henley in 2015 they said 'they started to see the cracks'.
They were unhappy Mr Pyke kept a dog, owned by tenants who had stayed at the mansion while the family were in the UK, on the property. He had charged the former tenants £500 per week to care for the animal.
Mrs Gottschalk said Mr Pyke had made out the dog had just been left at the property by the tenants.
Mr Pyke responded: "I had cleared that I would look after the dog with the Gottschalks, I just hadn't told them about the money.
"I felt it was a personal agreement, I didn't feel it was their need to know. Other staff on site earn money they don't disclose. It was just an extra income to me."
The Gottschalks also disliked Mr Pyke's boyfriend staying at the property without their knowledge or consent, the panel heard.
Mrs Gottschalk described one morning when she was staying at the property and said that she awoke at 6.30am to see a man on the property she did not know.
"It would be nice to know who's on the property when we're there with the children, it's just a courteous thing," she said.
Addressing Mr Pyke at the tribunal she said: "I had asked you to introduce him to me because I was uncomfortable with the situation."
The judge also heard the couple were unhappy that Mr Pyke had used their cars, including a Porsche, personally while they were away - although he claimed he had an arrangement with them.
Mr Pyke said: "I never used their cars for personal use. I agreed with them I would use the cars to get them running.
"There was an agreement to use them to get them running but other than that I would cycle everywhere," he told the tribunal.
"I did use the truck for personal use for a long time because I had problems with my car."
The Gottschalks told the tribunal they had given Mr Pyke a "final warning" in March this year after a formal meeting following Mrs Gottschalk finding out about his financial arrangement to keep the dog.
However, Mr Pyke denied it was a formal disciplinary meeting and described it as just a 'chat in the kitchen'.
However Mrs Gottschalk said it was 'formal in a domestic setting' and added Mr Pyke got emotional and even offered to move out that evening.
The couple said they and Mr Pyke met again two days later and offered him another chance.
"It was very clear your job was at risk. You had abused your situation as house manager. You had used vehicles, you let people onto the property without our knowledge, you made money off us on our property."
Jane Gottschalk
However, in June 2016 the issues came to a head again after Mr Pyke was asked to take Mrs Gottschalk's mother to the airport.
Mr Pyke said he had plans for a Father's Day lunch so could not do the airport trip.
Mrs Gottschalk said: "She's quite independent my mum, she lives three minutes away. I had said 'if there's anything she needs please go and help her out'.
"She had never asked for anything. But on this occasion her friend who usually helped her, couldn't. She said she found Mr Pyke's refusal very curt adding: "I found it very rude and was embarrassed by it."
However Mr Pyke retorted: "I'm not contracted to work weekends and I had been told I wouldn't be needed until the following Monday."
Eventually Mrs Gottschalk sent him a text stating "f**k off and get out my house". At the tribunal, she said: "I'm not proud of it."
Mr Pyke said he was shocked as he thought the issue was "sorted".
He said: "I said in the text message 'I've left you a voicemail'. I have great respect for her and there's no reason I would speak to her in the manner that's being portrayed.
"I would have been as helpful as possible. I heard nothing for three hours so thought that was job done and dusted. The next I heard was from the PA asking if I'd seen the email.
"I wasn't expecting my job to be on the line and to be suddenly homeless and have to leave the property.
"To suddenly receive this message, I had no idea what was going on."
He told the tribunal that since he was fired he had looked for more work and had received offers, almost appearing on a television show with Bear Grylls as a possible employment opportunity.
He is now starting work as a gardener three to four days a week.
Mrs Gottschalk said: "It was very clear your job was at risk. You had abused your situation as house manager. You had used vehicles, you let people onto the property without our knowledge, you made money off us on our property."
The tribunal was adjourned for a reserved judgement.
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