Amy Winehouse’s friends exploited her dad by selling late singer’s items, lawyer says

LONDON — Two friends of Amy Winehouse who sold items belonging to the late star worth around $970,000 “took advantage” of her father’s forgetfulness, a lawyer said on Tuesday at London’s High Court.

The Jewish singer’s former stylist, Naomi Parry, and her friend Catriona Gourlay sold dozens of items, including a black Armani bag and dresses Winehouse wore on her last tour in June 2011.

Winehouse’s father, Mitch, has brought a lawsuit in the UK against the pair, alleging they did not have the right to sell the items, which were sold between November 2021 and May 2023.

Lawyer Henry Legge, acting for Mitch Winehouse, said it was claimed in an email to the late singer’s father and his ex-wife Janis that the sale involved just a “few things,” a description the attorney said was “grossly misleading.”

The court heard earlier that the two women sold 150 objects that had belonged to Winehouse, who died of alcohol poisoning at age 27.

Parry realized that Mitch Winehouse was, in her words, “lazy” about keeping tabs on such matters, Legge said.

“It is clear that they took advantage of his forgetfulness,” he added.

The lawyer also hit back at suggestions he said came from the defendants’ side that Mitch Winehouse was in some way “venal,” or dishonest, and that the lawsuit was “motivated by that.”

He described it as one of a number of “cheap shots.”

The British singer-songwriter enjoyed meteoric global success before her death in July 2011.

Winehouse was a distinctive figure with her beehive hairdo, heavy black eye makeup, multiple tattoos, and smoky voice.

She shot to international fame with her Grammy Award-winning 2006 album “Back to Black,” which included the track “Rehab,” charting her battle with addiction.

According to court documents, her father believed that any sums collected from the sales organized by Los Angeles-based Julien’s Auctions would be due to him.

The auctioneers had also been told that a third of the proceeds would be donated to the Amy Winehouse Foundation, a charity set up in the singer’s name, working with young people to foster hope and self-reliance.

However, Winehouse’s team has accused the women of failing to donate their share of the proceeds to the foundation.

Ted Loveday, a lawyer for Gourlay, said at an earlier hearing that most of the objects had been given or lent to the two women by the singer, even if there was no proof.

“If a 19-year-old gives a scarf or a pair of earrings to their friends, no one signs a contract,” he told the court on Monday, stressing the late singer’s generosity.

Parry’s lawyer, Beth Grossman, has said previously that the two “women are not thieves and they are not dishonest.”

The case is wrapping up, and a judgment will be given at a later date.