Caribbean news. When he appeared on Dragons’ Den to market the Reggae Reggae Sauce that would make him a multi-millionaire, Levi Roots billed it as the ultimate family collaboration.
He told the world that the sauce was made to his Jamaican grandmother’s authentic recipe and said that his children helped out in his business.
Law student Joanne Caesar (left), 33, said her father has cut her out of his life – and his £30m fortune – after she helped to develop the famous sauce and provided backing vocals on his advert.
But it seems that most of the entrepreneur’s eight children – by seven mothers – struggle to think of him as a family man.
Last night, two of his daughters claimed he had never paid a penny in child support, at least four of his children are struggling on benefits, and one is effectively homeless after he refused to help her.
Miss Caesar said her father, who still lives in the two-bedroom Brixton council flat he has rented for 20 years, had ‘exploited’ her by getting her to work for him without paying her.
Miss Caesar described her father as ‘incredibly tight’ and said that, following his success, his main purchase had been a £300 sofa.
Last night, Miss Williams said her father, 55, had fired her from his takeaway shop Papine in Clapham Junction, South-West London, after a row with a customer.
She said that the customer groped her and she refused to serve him, but her father insisted that she did. They then had a row in front of the customers and he fired her.
She fell behind on her rental payments and asked her father for help, but he refused and she was evicted.
Miss Williams, who works in retail, said: ‘It was always his way or the highway. I managed the shop, but he didn’t want to pay me. He refused to pay me and my brother a wage. I was forced to claim benefits to make ends meet. Without my benefits I would have been homeless a very long time ago.’
Miss Caesar, a mother of one from Leytonstone, East London, said that at least three of his children had to claim benefits to survive.
Mr Roots, real name Keith Valentine Graham, was born in Jamaica and raised by his grandmother while his parents worked to make money in the UK so he could join them.
He appeared on Dragons’ Den in 2007, serenading the judges with his Reggae Reggae Sauce song.
Dragons Peter Jones and Richard Farleigh invested in his business. Shortly after, Sainsbury’s said it would stock the sauce, and he has since expanded his range and made a fortune.
In 2011 he fought a court battle against a former friend, Tony Bailey, who claimed he had stolen the jerk barbecue sauce recipe.
Mr Roots won, but Judge Mark Pelling attacked him for misleading the public, saying he ‘regards the truth as an optional extra’.
Daughter Sharlene Williams, 32, said her father ‘took advantage’ of her by making her work at his shop without paying her a wage and refusing to make her an employee. Photo courtesy www.dailymail.co.uk
The businessman said the sauce was invented by his grandmother and had been the ‘taste of Notting Hill Carnival’ since the early 1990s.
But the judge said he was guilty of ‘fraudulent misrepresentation’ and Mr Roots admitted the story behind the sauce was a ‘marketing ploy’.
Miss Caesar said: ‘He and Tony came up with the idea of making a sauce but my dad took the recipe home to see what he could do with it.
‘Me and my sister Sharlene made the sauce in his kitchen, so we knew the secret. He used to send us to Lidl to pick up the ingredients.
‘We worked on the sauce in his kitchen, experimenting with the ingredients until he perfected it. He already had a deal with a bottling factory and found someone to make the logo.’
She said she gave up her job so that she could live with him and help him make the sauce. But things changed between them as soon as he got the investment.
‘After Dragons’ Den, we stopped hearing from him. He let the money and the fame and fortune get to him and his ego got the better of him,’ she said.
‘He cut all of his children off because he said that we were all after his money.’
She said her father did not visit her in hospital when her son Keenan, now two, was born, and didn’t even phone her after the birth.
Dragons Peter Jones (left) and Richard Farleigh invested in Roots’s business.Shortly after, Sainsbury’s said it would stock the sauce, and he has since expanded his range and made a fortune.Photo courtesy www.dailymail.co.uk
Although she went on to perform backing vocals on his Reggae Reggae Sauce song that was used in an advert for the brand, she claims that he didn’t pay her for her work.
She added: ‘I just want him to remember who he was before he became Mr Reggae Reggae Sauce man because he was a nice man.’
Mr Roots declined to comment. Article courtesy http://www.dailymail.co.uk
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