Reggae Reggae Sauce millionaire Levi Roots has been blasted by a High Court judge as a fraud - but still won his legal battle over the recipe's origins.
Judge Mark Pelling attacked the entrepreneur for misleading the public, saying he was a 'fake' who 'regards the truth as an optional extra'.
But he ruled that 52-year-old Mr Roots did not steal the recipe for the jerk sauce from friend Tony Bailey.
The hugely successful businessman had claimed on TV show Dragons' Den that the sauce was invented by his grandmother and had been the 'taste of Notting Hill Carnival' since the early 1990s.
Bittersweet victory: Levi Roots, left, won the court case over Reggae Reggae sauce's origins after old friend Tony Bailey claimed it was his recipe;
But he had been accused by best friend Mr Bailey, 52, of taking the recipe and breaching a business agreement between the two of them and financial adviser Sylvester Williams over its marketing.
But Judge Pelling dismissed both claims and questioned the credibility of the evidence given by all three men during the two-week court battle.
He said Mr Roots was guilty of 'fraudulent misrepresentation'.
Father-of-seven Mr Roots had already been called a 'bare-faced liar' by lawyers acting for Bailey and Williams after he admitted the story behind Reggae Reggae Sauce was a 'marketing ploy'.
When he appeared on the BB2 show in 2007, he lied to secure £50,000 investment from 'Dragons' Peter Jones and Richard Farleigh, the judge said, and the story is still written on the best-selling product's label.
Web of deceit: Judge Mark Pelling said Roots 'regarded the truth as an optional extra'
Since his appearance on the show, Mr Roots's profile has sky-rocketed and his Reggae Reggae Sauce empire is now worth millions - selling a range of dips, sauces and relishes, recipe books, crisps, nuts, pasties, ready meals and soft drinks.
Dismissing Bailey's claims, Judge Pelling said: 'I have concluded that I ought not to accept the evidence of Mr Bailey or Mr Roots save where it is against the person concerned or is admitted or is corroborated.
'I am entirely satisfied that Mr Sylvester sought to mislead me in a number of ways.
'The inconsistencies I have identified suggests that Mr Roots is likely to say what he considers meets the needs of the moment and regards the truth as an optional extra to be adopted only where it is consistent with those needs.
'Mr Roots accepted that on his own case the suggestion contained in literature prepared in connection with the product that the product was based on his grandmother's recipe was untrue.
'Mr Roots attempted to explain these untruths away as "marketing".
'Marketing involves persuading people to purchase particular products my accentuating the quality and utility of the products or services concerned.
'Whilst the process will usually involve maximising what can legitimately be said in respect of the product or service concerned, it does not involve what can properly, if legalistically, be called fraudulent misrepresentations.
'Another example of this approach is to be found in a document "application details for Dragons' Den".
'This document contains at least two false representations that Mr Roots knew to be untrue at the time the document was written.
Shocking truth: Reggae Reggae sauce has made Mr Roots a millionaire, but the judge said his business empire was founded on lies;
'First, under the subheading "What is its unique selling point?", the product is described as having been "voted the best and tastiest jerk barbeque sauce in the world". It had not been.
'It was described as having been tested for 15 years at Notting Hill Carnival. It had not been. It was on Mr Roots's own case it had come into existence in 2005.'
However, Judge Pelling dismissed the claim of breach of confidence for the sauce, as Bailey's recipe was 'riddled with imprecision'.
He said: 'There is nothing special either about the ingredients or the methodology of making them into a sauce.
'I do not consider this recipe is sufficiently well developed to be capable of being confidential information.'
Judge Pelling also said that any business agreement between the trio depended on an investment of £5,000 - which never came.
Mr Bailey and Mr Sylvester attempted to sue Mr Roots for £300,000 each - shares in the profits made by Reggae Reggae sauce.
During the two-week hearing at the High Court, he admitted his back story to the sauce was 'lies' but denied stealing Mr Bailey's recipe, claiming to have developed his own from a basic jerk sauce recipe in his flat in Brixton, South London.
Dragon: Mr Roots won a £50,000 investment from 'Dragons' Peter Jones, pictured, and Richard Farleigh, and the famous franchise is now worth millions;
But Mr Bailey claimed he had kept the recipe secret since 1984, before being tricked into writing it down by Mr Roots in February 2006.
He said he had not written it down for 22 years, after memorising it and destroying the original copy.
Giving evidence, Mr Bailey said: 'The first time I ever wrote it and gave it to someone was Levi.'
Mr Williams and Mr Bailey were ordered to pay costs of £250,000 to the defence.
Judge Pelling refused them leave to appeal saying: 'It was a claim which was advanced in circumstances where, to the knowledge of the claimants, they had no proper basis for advancing it.'
In 2007, Richard Farleigh sold his 20 per cent share in Mr Roots's business, bought for £25,000 a year earlier, for £200,000.
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