London, June 19: The manufacturers of Heinz tomato ketchup have offered to pay the ?4 dry cleaning bill of a city lawyer who claimed that a secretary spilt the condiment over his trousers.

Richard Phillips, 36, who is reputed to earn ?85,000 a year as a senior associate with the world’s fifth largest law firm, Baker & McKenzie, was embarrassed last week by the leaking of an email correspondence in which he asked his secretary, Jenny Amner, to reimburse him for spilling ketchup on his trousers.

Amner, who earns about ?25,000 a year, was on compassionate leave attending her mother’s funeral at the time.

Michael Mullen, the director of European Corporate Affairs for Heinz Europe, said the company ? which sells 120 million bottles of tomato ketchup a year in Britain ? would be more than willing to ensure that Phillips’s trousers were free of unsightly stains.

“After all, why should Ms Amner pay the price for enjoying the world’s favourite ketchup?”