Gino D’Acampo’s burglary victim Paul Young’s reaction to TV chef after prison stint

Before he became beloved as one of the UK’s favourite TV chefs, had a surprising brush with crime in his early years, involving a break-in at a well-known musician’s abode.

Gino, now 48, served time behind bars during the late ’90s for burgling the residence of Paul Young, lead vocalist of Streetband and Q-Tips, with a carelessly discarded cigarette tipping off the cops.

Fast forward several decades, and Gino is now a cherished television superstar, even receiving forgiveness from pop icon Paul, 68, with the pair sharing a cordial meeting in 2009.

At just 21, while working as a waiter at The Orchard restaurant in London, Gino committed the theft at Paul’s Mill Hill home, pocketing guitars valued at £4,000 along with a platinum disc.

Paul recovered most of his possessions post-burglary, and Gino, having settled in England only a few years prior, was nabbed when forensic tests matched his DNA to cigarette butts left at Paul’s house during the heist. The former staple chef of was handed a two-year prison sentence, which he credits with making him “grow up”, reports .

Speaking to Birmingham Live in 2019, Gino reflected on the incident as a “mistake”. “It was a very crucial moment in my life. It was about embracing something negative and turning it into something positive,” he explained to the news outlet.

“I was a very young boy… you make those mistakes. The secret is to learn and to move on.”

Gino’s brush with the law only emerged in 2009, when he joined the cast of … Get Me Out of Here!

Before jetting off to Australia and being crowned King of the Jungle, the Family Fortunes host reached out to Paul to offer his apologies.

Paul reflected in 2012: “I don’t hold it against him. He said it was bad and he apologised, and I did get most of the stuff back.

“Maybe he needed his wrist slapping and he got that. He said he was in a terrible place at that time and wanted to turn his life around.”

The singer of ‘Wherever I Lay My Hat (That’s My Home)’ acknowledged Gino’s rise to fame but never considered exposing his past incarceration. Speaking to the Evening Standard, he remarked: “I take it with a pinch of salt really. You’ve got to have a sense of humour. He wanted to meet to say his apologies. I thought that was nice, then he went into I’m A Celebrity and I thought, ‘Ah, now I know why.'”.

Paul chose discretion over disclosure, quipping: “I decided to do the gentlemanly thing and not say anything. I just said, ‘I hope I get an invite to your new restaurant.’ I don’t know if he’s got a restaurant, but if he has and he’s not invited me then I’m p***ed off. He and I should do something stupid like collaborate on a show or book.”