Fact check. Britain’s richest family spent more on pet dog than servant

There is an update to this story which arrived in the newspaper the day after I published it. It is this: “Billionaires face jail after paying servant 6 pounds a day”. Yes, members of Britain’s richest family who were accused of spending more on a dog than on one of their servants have been given prison terms for exploiting staff according to today’s report by The Times newspaper. And so, although the amount paid in a salary was very low indeed and although they got board and lodging thrown in, this Geneva court found them guilty and the prosecutor accused the family of “profiting from the misery of the world”. According to the Times they profited “by importing mostly illiterate staff from India.” The Swiss authorities have seized jewellery and other assets from the family because they believe that they would have been used to pay for legal fees and possible penalties.

It seems that a key point against the defendants was that their staff had their passports taken away when they arrived in Geneva. And they slept in the basement on mattresses on the floor and critically they were paid their wages in rupees into banks in India to which they did not have access. And finally, the wife instilled a climate of fear in the home vis-à-vis the servants. All these factors combined to work against them in this trial. They are currently living in Dubai and are said to be in ill health. It would seem that they won’t be returning to Geneva to be imprisoned.

Prakash Hinduja, 78, and his wife Karmal, 75, was sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison after the Geneva trial. Their son and his wife were sentenced to 4 years. A remarkable conclusion.

This is a story which was well reported on the Internet and in hardcopy newspapers. On the face of it it’s a bit shocking. The story reports that Britain’s richest family spend more on their pet dog than they did on one of their servants according to the lawyers presenting the case at a Swiss court.

It’s a reference to the billionaire Hinduja family. They been accused of trafficking and exploitation of staff at their Lake Geneva villa.

The prosecutor in a Geneva court case, Yves Bertossa, told the court that one of their servants was paid seven Swiss francs a day to work for up to 18 hours, seven days a week. In UK money that is £6.19 p.

The prosecutor then referred to a family budget document headed “Pets”. This document reportedly showed that the family spent Fr.8,584 in a year on their family dog.

In court the prosecutor claimed that “They spend more for one dog than one of their servants.”

The prosecutor also stated that employees had little or no freedom while working for the family and passports were confiscated. The Hindujas have an estimated net worth of more than £37 billion. This lawsuit was filed against the family.

Clearly, the servant was paid very little. There have been a number of stories of rich families being abusive towards servants and sometimes treating them like slaves but we have to be careful.

In line with the title to this article about “fact check”, it has to be said that a straight comparison between a salary and the cost of caregiving of a dog is inadequate.

It doesn’t take into account the fact that the servants were provided with board and lodging. And there may have been other perks. We don’t know. But it would seem that the value of board and lodging in Geneva would be high and probably considerably more in terms of value than the salary.

This is not to defend this very wealthy family. The point is we need more information and a complete breakdown in order to make this comparison. And we need to see the fully itemised list of expenses related to the caregiving of this dog in order to make sure that they are valid.