Leading sommelier convicted of assault after biting colleague five times during 'rough and forceful' sex
One of the world's leading sommeliers bit a colleague five times during sex after his leaving party, a court heard.
Wine waiter Arnaud Bardary, 32, who worked at Gordon Ramsay's restaurant Maze in Mayfair, slept with Anais Lopes after she flashed her breasts at him.
But Ms Lopes went to the police after the champagne-fuelled sex session that was "quite rough", Westminster Magistrates' Court was told.
Bardary pleaded guilty to one count of assault by beating. Magistrates fined him £250 and ordered he pay £150 compensation to the victim.
Prosecutor Edward Aydin said: "On 1 May they met in the City of Quebec bar in Marble Arch. They then took a taxi back to his address a few miles away.
"She had been kissing him at the bar and once at his address then had consensual sex.
"It lasted for about an hour and during that time, in the early hours of the morning, he began to bite the victim and the sex was quite rough.
"She asked him to stop because it was hurting her, but he continued to bite her. He bit her five times.
"This amorous liaison ended up not as an amorous liaison but a rough and tumble, as if the victim there went into a tumble dryer.
"But they continued to have sex, they finished having sex, they finished the champagne and she went home by an Uber and later reported him to the police."
Mr Aydin added: "It was not romantic, it was rough sex, it was forceful."
Anne McCarthy, defending, said: "He's in a state of shock about the allegations being made. Right at the beginning, he said there was never any intention of assault per se."
She added: "At the leaving party, to put it colloquially, [the victim] came on very strong to him. She was bearing her breasts at him and using language that she would destroy him."
Bardary, who has since expressed remorse for the attack at his home, then in Putney, south London, now plans to continue his career in Australia.
He is said to be one of just 250 people with enough expertise in wine service to qualify as a master sommelier.
Ms McCarthy said: "He was rated as one of the two best youngest sommeliers in the world, then the second-best in the UK in 2015.
"He has not worked after giving in his notice in March 2016, hence the leaving party. He is due to start as a beverage manager in Sydney, Australia, on 18 July of this year. All his visas, tickets and travel arrangements have been made."
Magistrate David Rogers said: "Normally we would have you undertake a community order, but because of your situation we are going to impose a fine today.
"It is an exceptional case, but we did accept that you have pleaded guilty and you have shown remorse and embarrassment.
"We feel that you got carried away and crossed a line that you shouldn't have crossed but that was it."
Bardary,who now lives in Olonne-Sur-Mer in western France, must also pay £85 costs and a £30 victim surcharge within two weeks.
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