JORDAN: GROOM 'RIPPED ME OFF'

ABOVE: Jordan

ABOVE: Hillman

but it wasn’t until I looked at the paperwork I found out she was stitching me up.

Kate Price

9th October 2007

By Steve Dutton

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Glamour model Kate Price claimed yesterday she was “stitched up” by a former employee.

The TV celebrity, also known as Jordan, told a court that horse groom Joanne Hillman opened up accounts at pet shops and then sold the products, leaving her to pick up the bill.

But Ms Price, 29, said no criminal charges were brought against Hillman. She said: “I didn’t follow it up because it was a strain on me. I was suffering post-natal depression at the time.”

Ms Price also said Hillman stole photos from her home and took people around the house without her permission.

Secrets

She added: “I reported her to my solicitors and then went to the police.
“I didn’t realise until I looked at the accounts – I can’t swear in court – that she was taking the mickey out of me.”

The star paid Hillman £150 then £250 per week to look after her three horses, dogs and for house cleaning.
Hillman faces trial for benefit fraud. It is alleged she claimed income support, housing benefit and council tax benefit while being paid by Ms Price.

Ms Price also claimed that Hillman breached a confidentiality agreement by signing a £12,500 deal with a Sunday newspaper to reveal secrets of her time around her family, although the story has not been published.
And Ms Price claimed she had to get solicitors to stop Hillman publishing a book My Life With Jordan in association with publicist Max Clifford.

Ms Price said: “My brother who was dealing with my finances would ring me up and say: ‘These horses are costing you a fortune.’

“I said: ‘I know’ but it wasn’t until I looked at the paperwork I found out she was stitching me up.”
Ms Price spent around 90 minutes in the witness box at Lewes Crown Court in Sussex.

Hillman, 33, of Brighton, Sussex, has never been charged with any of the allegations made by Ms Price. She denies dishonestly failing to notify the authorities of a change in her working circumstances, netting her around £15,000.

The trial continues.