The millionaire owner of a luxury British menswear brand threatened to shoot one of his staff for drunkenly gatecrashing a private party and eating off a VIP's plate, a tribunal heard.
Kristian Robson, proprietor of upmarket label Oliver Brown, had a furious bust-up with assistant manager Jerome Ingle-Smith when he turned up uninvited to an afterparty for the launch of the brand's new store in Mayfair 's Jermyn Street.
Mr Robson — whose company tailors to celebrities, footballers and Prime Ministers — feared his employee was 'wrecking' the event, which he had paid models and social media influencers to attend.
When 'defiant' Mr Ingle-Smith refused to leave, he threatened to kill him by saying 'I will beat the sh*t out of you' and 'I will f***ing shoot you', an employment tribunal was told.
Mr Ingle-Smith, from Surbiton in southwest London, was said to have appointed himself 'chief barman' at the launch event and when colleagues said Mr Robson didn't want them drinking, he replied 'f**k that, I am f***ing drinking'.
Witnesses also said he 'helped himself to drinks' while serving others and was 'drunk, loud and obnoxious'.
Following the event, VIPs — including clients, paid influencers, and Mr Robson's friends and family - were invited to an afterparty at the restaurant Isabel Mayfair.
Mr Ingle-Smith, 41, was not invited but claimed that another guest asked him to come along and turned up after getting drunk at the launch event on November 3 last year, the tribunal heard.
A furious argument broke out between the assistant manager and his boss when he took the seat of a VIP at the afterparty and started eating from their plate.
Mr Robson ordered Mr Ingle-Smith to leave, however he refused so his boss marched to his side of the table and removed his plate.
A row erupted and eventually security were called.
"Mr Robson was clearly angry and upset at this point and Mr Ingle-Smith was intransigent about leaving even after being asked a number of times", a tribunal report said.
During the argument, Mr Robson said 'I will beat the sh*t out of you, you little c***' and 'I will fucking shoot you', it was heard.
Mr Ingle-Smith resigned from his £32,000 a year job the next morning, saying: "Following last night's threats of violence against me by Kristian, I no longer feel safe attending my place of work.
"Considering Kristian's threats to 'shoot me' and 'beat the sh*t out of me' and being in the knowledge of his ownership of a licensed firearm, I am truly fearful of myself being physically present at work."
The former employee, who resigned following the threats made by his boss, has now successfully sued Oliver Brown for constructive dismissal.
Mr Robson, 49, has run Oliver Brown for over 20 years with clients including actor Damien Lewis, singer Sam Smith and ex-footballer Michael Owen.
The firm was the official licensee to Royal Ascot and the official supplier of formalwear for Team GB at the 2014 Winter Olympics.
The day before the bust-up last year, then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson was seen wearing an Oliver Brown suit at COP26.
Employment Judge Natasha Joffe concluded Mr Ingle-Smith was constructively unfairly dismissed.
Judge Joffe said: "I concluded that [the threats] played a material role in his decision to resign although it seemed to me that there were other matters also in play such as the fact that the whole incident was humiliating to him.
"He said that he saw himself as part of the Oliver Brown 'family' and many of the people at the dinner were known to him."
She added: "Mr Robson was sorely provoked but that is not the same thing as having reasonable and proper cause for issuing threats.
"He had cause to firmly require Mr Ingle-Smith to leave and to involve restaurant security in his removal but a threat to kill self-evidently is not a reasonable and proper way to persuade a person to leave premises."
Mr Ingle-Smith will be awarded compensation at a later date and is seeking £5,688 in damages.
However, the judge said that any award will have to be reduced by 75 per cent due to his behaviour on the night.
