Sweary celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay is suing members of his wife's family, alleging they used malware to gain illicit access to his business and personal email accounts.

Among other accusations against his wife's family filed in a 42-page court document with the High Court in London, he accuses Chris Hutcheson – father of Ramsay's wife Tana – of hiring IT expert Kevin Fung to use keylogging Trojans to steal passwords from several computers. Hutcheson is the former chief exec of Ramsay's restaurant empire, and was contentiously dismissed by Ramsay last October.

A High court writ further claims that captured passwords were used to intercept confidential emails, The Daily Mail reports. The writ claimed that Jennifer Aves-Eliott, Gordon Ramsay's personal assistant, was also targeted in the attack, which is alleged to have occurred before Hutcheson was fired.

Hutcheson was fired over allegations he withdrew hundreds of thousands in company funds to maintain a double life with a secret second partner and two children. In addition, Hutcheson's wife and son were put on the company payroll without approval by Ramsay, it is alleged.

The complicated private life of Hutcheson, kept secret from Ramsay's wife Tana, was the subject of a super-injunction only lifted back in May.

Commentary on the security aspects of the spyware aspect of the story can be found in a blog post by Sophos here. ®