Southwark Crown Court was told that Michelin-star restaurant boss spikes a woman’s spicy margarita with a substance hidden in a Madagascan vanilla extract bottle while she’s not looking

Vikas Nath, 63, is on trial for attempting to administer a substance with intent and possession of a Class B drug

Nath admitted using a straw to put gamma-butyrolactone (GBL) into the drink while sitting in the rooftop garden bar of Annabel’s members club in Mayfair on January 15, 2024

He that insists he spiked the alcoholic beverage to make the woman ‘less anxious’ rather than as part of a plan to have sex with her

CCTV footage shows Nath brazenly tampering with the drink within yards of colleagues and customers enjoying that evening at the £3,750-a-year club in Berkeley Square, London

Staff at Annabel’s private club in Mayfair, quickly replaced the drugged drink for a fresh one before the complainant drank from it

They also advised the woman that “they were concerned that [Nath] put something in [her drink]”, before she returned to the table 

In court Vikas Nath, [photo], a director at high-end Indian restaurant Benares in Mayfair, admitted to using a straw to put gamma-butyrolactone (GBL) into a woman’s drink while sitting in the rooftop garden bar at Annabel’s in Mayfair. He is accused of attempting to ‘roofie’ a female acquaintance

In a UK court, a man accused of spiking the drink of a female acquaintance with a date-rape drug at exclusive private members’ club, on the stand offered a head scratching explanation for his act,
Vikas Nath, the 63-year-old boss of a Michelin-star London restaurant, Nath denies attempting to administer a substance with intent and possession of a Class B drug.
Giving his testimony at Southwark Crown Court on Wednesday, he admitted to using a straw to put gamma-butyrolactone (GBL) into the woman’s drink while sitting in the rooftop garden bar of Annabel’s in Mayfair on January 15, 2024.
Nath tearfully told a jury that putting a substance in the woman’s spicy margarita was ‘wrong’ but claimed he did it to make her ‘less anxious’.

CCTV footage recorded on the roof top garden bar at Anabel’s in Mayfair on January 15, 2024, shows Vikas Nath reaching into his right pocket emerging with a small bottle filled with a substance, that was later proven to be a bottle of Madagascar vanilla extract, containing GBL

CCTV footage from the bar captured images of the restaurant boss spiking the woman’s drink with a substance hidden in a Madagascar vanilla extract bottle while she’s not looking.
Nath, of Knightsbridge, west London, told jurors through tears: ‘What I did was wrong and I regret it very deeply.’ However, he denied his intention was to ‘stupefy and overpower’ the woman.
Instead, the restaurateur, whose portfolio of venues across the UK and Spain includes two with Michelin stars, maintains that he spiked the alcoholic beverage to make the woman ‘less anxious’.
He denied prosecution argument that it was part of a scheme to have sex with her.
However events of that night was captured on CCTV surveillance footage. It shows Nath brazenly tampering with the drink within yards of colleagues and customers enjoying their evening at the £3,750-a-year club in Berkeley Square.

Nath is seen dipping a straw into the bottle he pulled from his trouser pocket, then transferring it to his female companion’s drink, while she was away from the table

Relaxing on the plush cushioned sofa which dominates the top floor of Annabel’s, the suit-clad restaurateur can be seen holding a phone in his left hand and a straw in his right.
He first dips the straw into what is believed to be the victim’s drink, although at this stage he has not yet added any of the spiking substance onto the straw.
Nath takes a sip of the beverage from the tip of the straw before placing it back down on one of the lounge’s circular tables.
Seconds later, the reclining restaurant boss uses his right hand to reach into his trouser pocket and appears to pull out a small bottle filled with a substance.

He gives it a stir before having a taste of the residue on his straw

Just one table away from a customer sitting on a barrel-shaped chair, Nath shuffles awkwardly in his seat and puts down his phone in order to free up his left hand.
He grabs the straw again and seems to dip it into the bottle of substance but attempts to hide it from view as a diner walks past him.
Nath then returns the straw to the table top and appears to look at his phone for a few moments to allow those bustling around the restaurant to sit back down. 
The moment a roaming customer moves out of sight, the restaurateur dips the straw into the target drink and gives it a stir before once again having a taste of the residue.
He previously told jurors he had himself consumed the substance a few times before that night as it heightened the effects of alcohol.
Nath also took a ‘swig’ of it before entering Annabel’s, the court heard. 
He then casually scrolls on his phone and reclines in his seat before appearing to dip the straw back into the bottle and into the spicy margarita twice more.
Nath seems to return the bottle of substance to his pocket before laying back on the sofa again. 

The attempted roofieing happened at the rooftop garden bar of Annabel’s members club in Mayfair [photo], on January 15, 2024. Staff managed to switch the drugged drink for a fresh one before the woman drank from the cup 

Staff managed to switch the drugged drink for a fresh one before the woman drank from it. Nath meanwhile threw the bottle of GBL into a toilet cistern when police were on the way, prosecutors said. 
Nath, who is a director of Termdeal Ltd which owns high-end Indian restaurant Benares in Mayfair, told jurors on Wednesday through tears: ‘What I did was wrong and I regret it very deeply.’
But he denied that his intention was to ‘stupefy and overpower’ the woman.
The defendant said that he had mixed the substance, which he thought was cleaning fluid, with tequila and that he had put it in the woman’s drink to ‘calm’ her, the court heard.
He said that the woman had been ‘erratic’, adding that he intended for her to be ‘less anxious and for her to calm down a little bit’.
Asked by his defense attorney, Eleanor Laws , whether he had intended to have sex with her, Nath replied: ‘I wasn’t thinking about that.’

The ‘spiked’ spicy margarita, [left], was bagged for evidence, along with the straw, [right]. Nath meanwhile got rid of the bottle of GBL into a toilet tank before police arrived, throwing it into a toilet cistern

The woman and Nath met six times before the events of January 2024, often for lunch – including at the Beaverbrook Town House five-star hotel and Michelin-starred restaurant, Benares, the court heard.
Prosecutor Tim Clark, previously told jurors Nath spiked the drink because he was ‘impatient with lack of progress’ and wanted to sleep with her and not ‘hold hands’. 
Jurors had earlier heard the defendant in his police interview, told officers that he bought the chemical around 2016.
GBL is fluid sometimes used clean alloy wheels. Nath told the jury, another friend had told him that it could also be drunk with alcohol as a ‘relaxant’. However, when police conducting a search of his home, police found two bottles of the substance under his sink, he told officers he was not aware the type of drug it was, the court heard.
Questioned on how and where he met the woman he allegedly, attempted to drug, Nath said: ‘I met her very briefly by the side door of the building in late October or early November 2023. She said that we could meet sometime over lunch or coffee.’

Police recovered a vanilla extract bottle containing GBL, that was floating in the toilet cistern at Annabel’s in Mayfair. Nath previously told jurors he had himself consumed the substance a few times before that night

Nath, of Knightsbridge, west London, explained when they were out shopping, he told her he was interested in starting a relationship with her and that in response she ‘smiled’.
Clark added there was evidence to show the restaurant boss ‘wanted to have sex at his house where there was a camera and it could record it’. 
Jurors were told Nath had a camera in the bedroom of his home in Knightsbridge, which was activated by motion sensor. He admits using it in the past to ‘covertly’ record sexual activity.
The restaurateur had also exchanged texts with a friend before the spiking incident showing he wanted to have sex with the woman and was ‘frustrated’ it had not yet happened.
He wrote: ‘I’m at Annabel’s. This is probably the last evening with (her). She ain’t biting.’ The friend then replied: ‘Action time I hope.’
In November 2023, Nath told his friend: ‘I want to get laid, not hold hands.’ 
He also told his friend he would need to do ‘old-fashioned seduction… the issue is do I have the patience for it’.
Nath told officers he had been suffering from a breakdown at the time.
The defense attorney the probed her client about the messages he had sent to his friend about the complainant. 
‘Now that you have had the opportunity to consider the tone and content of those messages since you sent them, now looking at them in the cold light of day, what do you think about the kind of things you were saying?’ she asked.
‘They were very crude messages,’ he replied.

Prosecutor told jurors Nath [photo], spiked the drink because he was ‘impatient with lack of progress’ and wanted to sleep with her and not ‘hold hands’. He was going to take his date home where he had a camera activated by motion sensor in the bedroom. Nath admits using it in the past to ‘covertly’ record sexual activity

Prosecutor Tim Clark, previously told jurors Nath spiked the drink because he was ‘impatient with lack of progress’ and wanted to sleep with her and not ‘hold hands’. 
The alleged victim, who said she had been an Annabel’s member since the age of 18, told the court a member of staff spoke to her before she returned to the table: “They advised me that they were concerned that he put something in it,” she said.
Initially she did not believe her drink had been spiked: “I remember vividly defending Mr Nath, saying ‘There is no way he could do that,’ she told the court.
“I remember sending him a message saying ‘I’m sorry, I don’t know what’s happening’. Because I felt it was my fault.
“I didn’t want him in trouble, I didn’t believe it.”
On January 11 – four days before the spiking incident – the pair went to the Cirque Le Soir nightclub in the West End.
Nath messaged the woman the next day telling her he had been worried her drink might get spiked.
He told the court: ‘We were in a strange place…She was going away to the bathroom sometimes and leaving her drinks and personal belongings on the table.
‘She was behaving very erratically, she was very hyper. Someone who has drunk that much I would expect that.’
He claimed the woman had asked to come back to his flat, but that he had said no, adding: ‘I didn’t want my adult son seeing me with a woman.’
The restaurant boss said: ‘I thought I agreed that it might lead to a sexual liaison.’
Nath said that on the night of the spiking he wanted to speak to the woman about ‘taking [the relationship] to the next level’.

The complainant testified that prior to the incident she felt safe in her platonic relationship with Nath. Admitting to his act, he insists he spiked the beverage to make his female companion ‘less anxious’, rather than as part of a scheme to lure her into his bed

Elanor Laws asked her client: ‘Did you consider when you were on the way to Annabel’s that the relationship was purely platonic?’
‘No’, Nath replied, explaining that they had exchanged numerous messages and that some of them had been flirtatious, adding that they had been ‘cuddling and kissing’.
By contrast, the complainant discussing their relationship, told the court: “He came across as he cared for me and it was nice. I never thought he would have made a physical move on me so I felt safe with him.
“He never spoke of anything of a sexual nature.”
Asked by the defense if she had told Nath about her boyfriend, the woman told the court: “He was aware. I did not speak about him often, but he was aware.”
Cross examined by the defense on the nature of her interactions with Nath prior to January 15 2024, the woman said: “We always air kissed and it was never inappropriate.”
With the trial continuing, Nath denies attempting to administer a substance with intent and possession of a Class B drug.