A REAL Housewives of Cheshire star threatened to stab a worker in the eye at her crisis-hit care home, a tribunal heard.
Ampika Pickston opened the home for teen girls in social care after it was bankrolled by her billionaire West Ham owner fiance David Sullivan.
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But AP Care Homes Ltd in Cheshire was permanently closed by Ofsted, which Pickston is now appealing at a Care Standards Tribunal.
The panel was told the 43-year-old reality star made a threat against her employee, Natalie Canavan.
Ms Canavan said: “Ms Pickston … blurted out, looking directly at me, if you say anything to Ofsted, my colleagues at Real Housewives of Cheshire, or the media ‘I will stab you in the eye with a fork’.
“In the moment, I laughed it off, as I didn’t want to appear undermined, however, it made me feel intimidated and threatened.
“This incident made me see Ampika Pickston … as controlling and negative.”
Pickston was permitted by Ofsted to open the “luxury” home for girls aged 12 to 16 using a £1.2million loan from porn baron Sullivan.
The move came despite neither having any experience in the children’s care sector.
Since its opening in July 2023, the facility has twice been suspended from caring for kids by the watchdog over a catalogue of failures.
After it was closed for good last year, Pickston, who appeared on The Real Housewives of Cheshire between 2015 and 2017, launched an appeal.
The tribunal was also told she sent a legal letter to Ms Canavan after she learnt that staff had been discussing an unspecified “serious allegation” about her and Sullivan.
The letter’s contents were not disclosed during the hearing, but the worker claimed all employees were made to sign a non-disclosure agreement.
Ms Canavan added: “This made me feel silenced and feared whistleblowing against AP Care Homes due to any subsequent legal action.”
The worker told the hearing that she was headhunted by Pickston for the role after racking up ten years in childcare experience.
Ms Canavan claimed she was promised “higher pay than any other residential care home in the UK”.
But Pickston said: “I believe that Natalie Canavan has an unfounded grudge against me personally and against [AP Care Homes].”
Her lawyers also said that Pickston had never made any threats of violence to staff.
Explaining the alleged failures at the home, Catherine Fargin, an Ofsted inspector, told the tribunal that one child had been speaking to strangers online in her room.
She said the child had been using a social media app described as “like Tinder for teens”, which Judge Siobhan Goodrich described as “inappropriate”.
Ms Fargin also found that staff at Moss Farm were worked so hard by management that they fell asleep on the job.
A previous Ofsted report claimed one child had not eaten for days and that others had been allowed to vape.
The tribunal continues.
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