Boohoo boss flouts lockdown rules with champagne dinner party at her luxury home
A BOSS in the Boohoo fashion empire last night apologised for flouting lockdown rules with a champagne dinner party.
Sam Helligso celebrated cashing in on Black Friday weekend by being served lobster linguine and £200-a-bottle Cristal bubbly by a butler at her luxury home.
While high street stores face closure owing to the pandemic, guests shared snaps of the feast — including a dish they decorated with two Rolex watches worth £25,000 each.
Confronted by The Sun on Sunday, Helligso — CEO of Boohoo’s MissPap — said: “I wanted to celebrate a really big week with my family but I clearly realise that this is wrong.
“It’s so important that we all follow the rules, something I have been happy to do all the way through the pandemic. This was a total lapse in judgment and will definitely not happen again.
“I know that what I did was really stupid and I am genuinely sorry.”
But a friend of the six-strong group insisted: “Imagine seeing this if you are a worker at Topshop or Debenhams and you are about to lose your job.
“The country has pulled together during lockdown — and then there are people like this.”
The Saturday night party came just two days after the Boohoo Group appointed a judge to help overhaul its supply chain following a sweatshop scandal.
Britain’s fastest-growing online retailer made clothes for Nasty Gal using workers on £3.50 an hour at factories in Leicester during a lockdown in the city in July.
It also emerged that staff in a Sheffield Boohoo warehouse, where 25 workers caught Covid, had been working without additional hygiene or social distancing measures.
And there was yet more criticism for encouraging fast fashion and unsustainable consumption by selling shoes for 25p and dresses for 8p on Black Friday.
Helligso, 34, and chums started posting pictures and videos on Instagram at 9pm despite the clear breach of the lockdown rules.
At around 1am partygoers deleted images showing them ordering champagne, wine and vodka while tucking into seafood, Parma ham and smoked salmon.
Guests included ex-footballer Tom Curle, 34-year-old son of Northampton Town boss and former Manchester City ace Keith.
The friend added: “Someone raised the alarm. Most of the pictures were gone from their stories by the morning. The butler looked mortified to be there. He may just have thought he was hired for a couple’s dinner — not a party breaking the rules!”
Snaps from the bash in Bowdon, Gtr Manchester, were posted by Helligso, Curle and nutritionist Kate Withington, who was pictured with husband Nick.
Helligso and her recruiter husband Dan, 33, sit under a huge chandelier, at the head of their white, lacquered dinner table.
Pictures shared by Curle, who describes himself as a friend of ex-Corrie star Ryan Thomas, included an image of two Rolex Daytona watches worth £25,000 each.
They rested on the plated lobster main course, while a waiter ground pepper on the dishes.
Last night, Curle, who earlier had posted a pic of his newly valeted Porsche Cayenne, said: “It’s a no comment situation really. It is what it is, isn’t it? A bit of a nightmare.”
Kate Withington claimed that she had not been to the dinner party, despite posting and being in the photos. She said: “I was at home with my children.
“If I was tagged in anything it was from a dinner party that I went to weeks ago.
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“Sam and I have got children, how could we even get babysitters? Nobody has been anywhere on the weekends.”
Helligso and her hubby, who have a two-year-old son, are no strangers to showing off their luxury lifestyle. Their social media feeds include shots of a £125,000 Aston Martin Vantage, trips to Mykonos, celeb ski resort Gstaad and Ibiza — where they had previously wed.
Boohoo was set up in 2006 by Mahmud Kamani with designer Carol Kane, to sell direct to shoppers. It is now an empire of brands worth £3.7billion. Mr Kamani will be hauled in front of MPs this month to answer a string of questions.
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