Celebrity chef Marco Pierre White sues former business partners for £174,000 after being 'forced out of restaurant he ran' Former business partners are counter-suing him for £400,000 - £600,000 Pierre White says he is entitled to share of sale of pub that used his name Also says he should have received 38 per cent of £900,000 sale of Inn Marco Pierre White arriving at the Rolls Building in London today where he launched a £174,000 claim against his former business partners Celebrity chef Marco Pierre White has launched a damages claim for £174,000 against two former business partners. The 51-year-old restaurateur claims he was cheated out of his share of the 17th century Yew Tree Inn in Highclere, Hampshire. It was previously known as Marco Pierre White's Yew Tree Inn and was sold in June last year for £900,000. But Pierre White says he has not received a penny from Andrew Parton and Peter Feathermen who say he is not entitled to anything. They have launched a counter claim for between £400,000 and £600,000 for failing to grant them a licence to use his name. Pierre White told the court that he promoted the business on his Great British Feast TV programme as part of his claim for damages for breach of contract and deceit. He said under an agreement he should have had 38 per cent shares in the company that ran the restaurant. He was not expecting to be paid for the use of his name but did expect to get dividends and a share of the business if it was sold. He claimed business increased because of his promotion of it. His counsel Robert Deacon told Mr Justice Morgan that the 'well known celebrity chef and restaurateur' claims damages to compensate him for what would have been valuable shares if his partners had kept to the agreement with him. But his former partners claim he would only get the shares if he granted a licence to use his name without charge, and no such licence was ever granted. They also say the removal of his name and resulting bad publicity led to a very big drop in turnover forcing them to sell. Mr Deacon said it would be 'absurd' for the chef 'to agree to his name being used in connection with a restaurant business unless he had an interest in the business and continued to have an interest or some control over the business whilst his name was being used or some protection over the use of his name.' The 51-year-old restaurateur claims he was cheated out of his share of the 17th century Yew Tree Inn (pictured) He added that the whole point of him 'investing in the Yew Tree restaurant and agreeing to continue to do so was that his name could be used as long as he remained a major shareholder in the business. This was the underlying commercial justification for allowing his name to be used. He alleges that when the shares were issued in the company set up to run the business his partners 'saw an opportunity to cut him out of the picture yet continue to use his name in association with the restaurant business.' Pierre White became involved with the Yew Tree in 2007 and became a director and shareholder of the company that then ran it. He claims that under reorganisation in 2009 the new company bought all the shares in the old one and he should have been given 38 per cent of the new company to allow his name to continue to be used. When he did not get the shares he demanded his name be taken off the restaurant which it was in January 2011. He then sued for damages for deceit. The hearing, set to last four days, continues.