Annabel’s staff spot spiking incident
A restaurateur is facing trial for spiking a woman’s drink at private member’s club Annabel’s after bar staff at the London spot raised the alarm.
Staff at private members’ club Annabel’s in Mayfair noticed restaurateur Vikas Nath “dipping a straw” into a small bottle he retrieved from his pocket before transferring the same straw into the victim’s margarita cocktail.
The incident, which took place on 15 January 2024, has been escalated to Southwark Crown Court, where Nath admitted to spiking the drink but said it was to “relax” the woman rather than as a plan to have sex with her. However, he denies attempting to administer a substance with intent and possession of a Class B drug.
The victim, who has not been named, had met with Nath six times previously and told the court she found it odd that he would test drinks with “a little straw” during their meetings.
She told the court: “I always found it quite strange, he would put a little straw in to try it. He was affirming it was of high quality, he would test it with a straw and take a drink of it. I became acclimatised to seeing him doing it.”
Heroic staff
On the 15 January Annabel’s staff managed to switch the drugged drink for a fresh one before the woman drank from it, and also warned the woman of their suspicions.
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“They advised me that they were concerned that he put something in it,” she told the court.
It was later found that Nath had thrown a bottle of vanilla extract containing ‘date rape’ drug gamma-butyrolactone (GBL) into a a toilet cistern when he learned that police were on the way.
Giving evidence this week, Nath, of Knightsbridge, told jurors: “What I did was wrong and I regret it very deeply.”
He added that the woman had been “erratic”, and that he intended for her to be “less anxious and for her to calm down a little bit”. The court also heard that Nath had mixed the substance, which he said was cleaning fluid for his BMW i8 car, with Tequila before putting it in her drink. Nath further claimed he took a “swig” of the mixture before entering Annabel’s, as he thought it would “heighten” the effects of alcohol.
Nath is listed at Companies House as a director of Termdeal Ltd, which is behind Indian restaurant Benares in Mayfair, and is also reported to have a portfolio of restaurants in London and Spain, including two with Michelin stars. Prior to investing and operating hospitality businesses, Nath had a career in finance spanning 25 years across companies such as UBS, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank and HSBC.
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