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THE EVENING STANDARD
Monday, 19 October 1998
Why did the Met let Fayed call the shots in these arrests?
by NIGEL ROSSER
Scotland Yard and other police forces stand accused of allowing themselves to be used by Harrods owner Mohamed Fayed in the harassment of ex-employees on the flimsiest of evidence supplied by Mr Fayed's staff.
Tom Bower's new "unauthorised" biography of the Harrods store owner details five cases, and the Evening Standard has uncovered another two in which former Fayed employees were questioned or arrested by police, on one occasion in the middle of the night, at the behest of Mr Fayed's security staff.
Mr Fayed's head of security, John Macnamara, is a former Metropolitan Police officer. There is no suggestion that in the cases we report officers acted corruptly, but the Evening Standard put to Scotland Yard the important issues raised by the catalogue of arrests:
- Why were police officers so ready to accept the word of Mr Macnamara and Mr Fayed, with his long record of deceit, and to act aggressively against men and women of previous good character?
- Why were police forces prepared to continue to act on Mr Fayed's allegations, once a clear pattern had emerged that the store owner sought to smear former senior employees?
- Can police officers justify their actions, or have they allowed their judgement to become clouded by personal links with Mr Macnamara and his security team?
After being questioned over what action they had taken in relation to these unfounded complaints, Scotland Yard, which dealt with five of the cases, agreed with the City of London Police and Surrey Police in explaining: "We have a duty to investigate allegations of crime when there are reasonable grounds to suspect that an offence has been committed."
Here we reveal the background to seven cases of Harrods employees who became the subject of police enquiries at Mohamed Fayed's behest.
GERHARDT EGGERT
Director, Harrods Information Systems. Resigned in early 1995 after becoming disillusioned with his employers.
Shortly afterwards, Mr Macnamara complained to Fraud Squad Detective Chief Inspector Barry Thorne that Mr Eggert had stolen commercially-sensitive information. A Scotland Yard computer specialist visited the Harrods main computer base in Osterley but found no evidence of such actions. Mr Macnamara and Paul Handley-Greaves, Mr Fayed's 6ft 6in head of personal protection, later travelled to Mr Eggert's home in Dusseldorf to confront him. They returned empty-handed. Mr Thorne is now Mr Macnamara's deputy director of security at Harrods.
What Scotland Yard says: It confirmed the complaint was made by Harrods and withdrawn shortly afterwards.
PETER BOLLIGER
Managing Director of Harrods. Fired in April 1994 after falling out with Mohamed Fayed.
After he spoke disparagingly about Mr Fayed and his dismissal in a newspaper, Harrods made a complaint to Chelsea Police Station alleging Mr Bolliger had misspent thousands of pounds of the store's money on personal telephone calls.
Harrods also alleged to the Press that £2 million was defrauded from the Fayed-owned shop Kurt Geiger, that Mr Bolliger mishandled a £3.3 million modernisation plan and illegally paid a £22,000 severance fee to an employee. On Harrods' application, a judge issued an injunction freezing his assets in Britain.
Police went to Mr Bolliger's home to question him and took statements from his former colleagues, but three days later Harrods asked for their complaint to be dropped. Several newspapers, however, had already printed Harrods' counter-claims against Mr Bolliger. Before a hearing a month later, instigated by Mr Bolliger, Mr Fayed's brother Ali negotiated an out-of-court settlement with Mr Bolliger, formally dropping all charges, releasing all his assets and paying £50,156 in compensation.
Scotland Yard confirmed an allegation of theft had been made by Harrods and was later withdrawn.
HERMINA DA SILVA
Harrods cleaner.
Harrods discovered she was planning to take the store to an industrial tribunal in 1994 after being dismissed as a nanny from Mr Fayed's Oxted home and given work as a cleaner at his Park Lane apartment complex. Miss da Silva was going to allege she had been sexually harassed by Mr Fayed at Oxted. She was arrested by detectives from West End Central Police station and held in cells overnight on alleged suspicion of having stolen from the Park Lane flat of Mr Fayed's brother Salah. The police action followed a complaint by Mr Macnamara.
Police released Miss da Silva without charge the following morning after senior officers concluded there had been no wrongdoing. She persisted with her industrial tribunal claim before Mr Fayed settled with her out of court for £12,000.
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