Italian sisters Francesca, right, and Elisabetta Grillo, background centre, former personal assistants of English broadcaster Nigella Lawson and her former husband art collector Charles Saatchi, arrive at the Isleworth Crown Court, in west London, Friday, Dec. 20, 2013, during a trial over alleged fraud. Grillos are accused of committing fraud by abusing their positions as PAs by using a company credit card for personal gain between Jan. 1, 2008 and Dec. 31, 2012. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)
December 20, 2013 - 4:53 AM
LONDON - Two former assistants to celebrity cook Nigella Lawson and her former husband have been acquitted of fraud.
A jury at London's Isleworth Crown Court found sisters Elisabetta and Francesca Grillo not guilty Friday.
The Grillos were accused of using credit cards loaned to them by Lawson and her former husband, Charles Saatchi, for household expenses to spend 685,000 pounds (more than $1 million) on luxury clothes, accessories and rooms at high-end hotels.
The fraud trial has been overshadowed by revelations about the domestic life of Lawson and Saatchi, who divorced in July after he was photographed grabbing the celebrity cook's neck outside a London restaurant.
News from © The Associated Press, 2013