A FORMER Michelin star chef and top restaurant inspector has apologised for claiming one of his colleagues sent him a hardcore pornographic email when he was working for the AA.

At the High Court in London, Gordon Cartwright admitted his claims that former colleague Maria Jayne Wyatt sent him an “unsolicited and deeply offensive email containing graphic, hardcore pornography” were baseless and hurtful.

The claims were made in an email sent to colleagues during a disagreement over new contracts for staff at AA Hotel Services Ltd, the AA’s publishing arm which produces the rating guides for UK hotels.

Mr Cartwright, now a guest lecturer to young chefs at Kendal College, apologised as part of the settlement in a libel action brought by Ms Wyatt, of Taun-ton, Somerset.

David Glen, representing Ms Wyatt, told the court his client and Mr Cartwright were both high up in the AA’s hotel inspection team in 2007, when the firm started discussions with staff on employment conditions.

Mr Cartwright, a former top chef who was awarded a Michelin Star while working at the Sharrow Bay hotel, in Ullswater, was keen to support the AA’s senior management, while Ms Wyatt, who worked for the AA for 29 years, advocated bringing in the GMB union.

During the row that followed, Mr Cartwright sent an email to a union leader and two AA managers, claiming that “a female colleague” – who Mr Glen said could only have been understood to refer to Ms Wyatt – had sent the offensive email.

The barrister said: “There was absolutely no basis whatsoever for the allegations.”

He said the actual email was in fact a piece of viral spam which had first been received by him on January 15, 2005.

“Mr Cartwright’s decision to raise this allegation was entirely unjustified and especially so in April 2007, almost two and half years later.”

Mr Glen added: “The publication of these allegations caused Ms Wyatt immense, hurt, distress and embarrassment. Their impact was especially severe given that they were published during a period when Ms Wyatt was already facing the prospect of internal disciplinary proceedings into her conduct in opposing the new contracts.

Mr Cartwright’s barrister, Angus Gload, said he offered Ms Wyatt his “sincere apologies”.