A MULTI-MILLIONAIRE couple have been ordered to pay more than £8,000 to their gay, former housekeeper who they unfairly dismissed.

Following a tribunal on November 7, Employment Judge Andrew Gumbiti-Zimuto ruled on Tuesday that Robin Pyke, from Cippenham, Slough, had been unfairly dismissed after 13 years of service to financier Maximilian Gottschalk and his wife Jane. In firing him, Mrs Gottschalk sent him a text saying “f**k off and get out my house”. At the tribunal, she said: “I’m not proud of it.”

The Gottschalks moved to Hong Kong in September 2014 leaving former gardener Mr Pyke in charge of their empty mansion.

Mr Pyke fell out with the lady of the house when she discovered his boyfriend was staying at the £10 million seven-bedroomed Summerhill Park, in Henley-on-Thames, without her knowledge and that he was looking after someone else’s dog at the property – and charging the owner £500 a week.

The couple disliked Mr Pyke’s boyfriend staying at the property without their knowledge or consent and Mrs Gottschalk described one morning to the panel when she awoke at 6.30am to see a man on the property she did not know.

The judge also heard they 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.

Tension between the couple and the housekeeper came to a head in the summer after he refused to drive the millionaire banker’s mother-in-law to Heathrow airport on his day off when he was busy with Fathers’ Day activities.

In his judgement, Judge Gumbiti-Zimuto said: “I am satisfied that if it was the claimant’s conduct which caused the dismissal, it was a potentially fair reason. “I am not satisfied that in this case there was any investigation. A reasonable employer would have asked ‘why have you refused?’ or something like that. before dismissing the claimant. I am satisfied the claimant was unfairly dismissed.”