Cafe owner loses court fight over Dragons’ Den sauce

Anthony Bailey sued Dragons’ Den contestant Levi Roots after claiming that Reggae Reggae Jerk/BBQ Sauce was derived from his “unique and secret recipe”.

Judge Mark Pelling QC dismissed Mr Bailey’s claims for breach of contract and breach of confidence after a hearing in London and questioned whether the recipe was “ever secret”.

Judge Pelling, who was sitting as a deputy high court judge, said: “This was a dishonest claim, dishonestly advanced.”

He said he could not “safely rely” on the evidence of Roots, whose real name is Keith Graham.

Lawyers estimate that the legal battle cost more than £1 million in total and the judge said Roots was entitled to have his costs paid.

Mr Bailey, who moved to England from Jamaica and runs the Blessed West Indian Takeaway in Brixton, south London, sued alongside financial adviser Sylvester Williams.

He told the court that he had “devised his own jerk sauce” and recorded his recipe in the West Indies more than 25 years ago.

Roots, 53, who also lives in Brixton and was born in Jamaica, said the claims were a “cynical and dishonest attempt to take advantage of his ingenuity and hard work”. He said he “started experimenting” with sauce recipes in 2005 and invented the “Reggae Reggae” title either later that year or in early 2006.

The judge ruled in Roots’ favour. He said: “It was a claim which was advanced in circumstances where, to the knowledge of the defendants, they had no proper basis for advancing it.”