Gordon Ramsay's father-in-law has been jailed for six months for hacking the celebrity chef's company computer system to steal information.

Chris Hutcheson, 69, the father of Ramsay's wife, Tana, plotted with his sons Adam Hutcheson, 47, and Chris Hutcheson Junior, 37, to break into the restaurateur's emails.

They sought to find financial details and other information, some of which ended up in the now defunct News of the World.

The two younger men were both given four-month jail terms, suspended for two years.

Jailing Hutcheson Snr at the Old Bailey, Judge John Bevan QC said: "The whole episode of five months amounts to an unattractive and unedifying example of dirty linen being washed in public."

Hutcheson Snr, who had previously held a senior position with Gordon Ramsay Holdings Ltd (GRHL), had been dismissed by the company.

Prosecutors said he was motivated to unlawfully access the computer systems as a result of the dismissal.

The court heard that emails were exchanged between Chris Hutcheson Snr and Adam Hutcheson, discussing how they could "crack into" specific email accounts of GRHL employees.

It was alleged the accounts were hacked to access material that could prove useful in civil litigation proceedings between Ramsay and Hutcheson Snr.

Once the chef, who was born in Johnstone, Renfrewshire, realised he had been hacked, he bought in an expert who identified the IP addresses of those involved.

A Met Police expert reviewed the log files and found almost 2000 unauthorised entries into GRHL accounts.