Claims brought by estate of Amy Winehouse dismissed
Mitch Winehouse, the father of the deceased singer Amy and the personal representative of her estate, brought claims against Naomi Parry and Catriona Gourley for conversion and against Ms Parry for breach of fiduciary duty. Ms Parry and Ms Gourley had been close friends of Amy’s and Ms Parry was also her stylist.
The claims arose over the sale at auction in 2021 and in 2023 of various items relating to the life and career of Amy Winehouse. Amy’s estate through her father participated in the first of those two auctions, together with Ms Parry and Ms Gourley.
Ms Parry and Ms Gourley had been deeply affected by Amy’s tragic death and, after many years of seeking to honour her memory in different ways, decided to part with items relating to Amy which they did not feel they could continue to store or look after properly.
After the first auction took place, Mr Winehouse alleged that Ms Parry and Ms Gourley had not been the owners of the items they had sold. Ms Parry and Ms Gourley alleged that the items they had sold had either always been owned by them, and loaned to Amy, or had been gifted by Amy to them.
Proceedings for conversion were brought in the High Court 2023. In 2025, only months before trial, Mr Winehouse amended his claim to allege that Ms Parry had undertaken to act as his fiduciary and had made a ‘secret profit’ from the sale.
In a Judgment handed down on 20 April 2026, the High Court has dismissed all claims against Ms Parry and Ms Gourley. It found that they had been “devoted and trusted friends to Amy”, that it was not plausible that they would have taken advantage of Amy or behaved in an underhand way towards her, that they had indeed loaned items to Amy and been gifted items by her, and that Ms Parry was not “the type of person to deceive Mr Winehouse or take advantage of him or the trust that he and the Estate placed in her”. Ms Parry and Ms Gourley did not conceal anything from Mr Winehouse. Ms Parry had not undertaken to act for Mr Winehouse and she did not make a secret profit.
The case is one of the first decisions to apply at first instance the Supreme Court’s ruling in Hopcraft v Close Brothers (August 2025) regarding allegations of fiduciary relationships outside recognised categories.
Beth Grossman instructed by Mark Lewis of Patron Law , was counsel for Naomi Parry, the First Defendant. The Court described the conduct of the trial as “exemplary”.
The judgment is available here.
