|
Consolidated by Order of Sir Michael Davies dated
the 28th day of April 1995
(1994 H No. 1654)
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION
BETWEEN
NEIL HAMILTON Plaintiff and
(1) DAVID HENCKE
(2) PETER PRESTON
(3) GUARDIAN NEWSPAPERS LIMITED
Defendants
(1994 G No. 1776)
IN THE HIGH COURT
OF JUSTICE
QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION
BETWEEN
(1) IAN GREER
(2) IAN GREER ASSOCIATES LIMITED
Plaintiffs
and
(1) DAVID HENCKE
(2) PETER PRESTON
(3) GUARDIAN NEWSPAPERS LIMITED
Defendants
WITNESS STATEMENT OF MOHAMED AL-FAYED
I, Mohamed Al-Fayed, of 87/135 Brompton Road, London
SW1X 7XL, will say as follows: 1. I should first like
to explain the background to my relationship with Mr Hamilton.
I was introduced to Mr Hamilton through Ian Greer of Ian Greer
Associates. I had been recommended to Ian Greer Associates in
the autumn of 1985 after Mr Greer had contacted me to offer his
services. Mr Greer told me that he had contacts in the House
of Commons and lobbying expertise which would be of assistance
to me and my brothers in the campaign which was being waged by
Lonrho following our successful takeover of House of Fraser. Mr
Greer told me that British Airways were also a client of his
company and I spoke to Lord King (whom I knew) who confirmed
that he regarded Ian Greer highly and could recommend him to me.
The Chairman of Lonrho, Edward du Cann, who was then also Chairman
of the influential 1922 Committee, had been very active in the
House of Commons lobbying on Lonrho's behalf right from our acquisition
of House of Fraser in March 1985. It was clear that we needed
to counter this parliamentary campaign, which was why we engaged
Ian Greer for that purpose. I first met Ian Greer in October
1985 and even at this very early stage of our relationship Ian
Greer was able to arrange for Neil Hamilton to table questions
in relation to Lonrho.
2. Mr Greer's role was to bring on side a small
group of members of Parliament which he set about doing. The
leading members of that group were Tim Smith and Neil Hamilton.
The other two were Sir Peter Hordern, who was already a paid
consultant to House of Fraser and Michael Grylls. I was never
asked for nor gave cash to Sir Peter Hordern or Michael Grylls.
The role of this group of MPs was to be the Parliamentary lobbying
operation for House of Fraser. In these early meetings between
myself and Mr Greer, he envisaged this group asking questions,
tabling early day motions and lobbying the Government and this
is very much what in fact happened. Mr Greer specifically told
me that it was perfectly normal to pay MPs to ask questions in
the House of Commons and undertake other similar activities.
At one of our meetings he told me that MPs could be "rented
like taxis". Mr Greer specifically put forward Neil Hamilton
and Tim Smith as MPs who would agree to be paid in exchange for
asking questions, lobbying and other parliamentary services. Over
the course of the next four to five years Mr Hamilton and Mr
Smith particularly both asked a number of questions in the House
of Commons and were involved in early day motions. Mr Hamilton
also corresponded with various Government Departments raising
matters related to House of Fraser and Lonrho.
3. Between 1987 and 1989 I made a number
of payments in cash or in Harrods gift vouchers directly to Mr
Hamilton when he visited me either at Harrods or at my London
residence at 60 Park Lane. I should first explain that for many
years I have always had readily available fairly substantial sums
of cash. I have always preferred cash as a method of settling
bills rather than cheques or credit cards. From time to time,
I arrange for one of my staff to go to the Midland Bank in Park
Lane where my personal accounts are held to draw cash against
a personal cheque from me. This cash is always presented by the
Bank in bundles of £50 notes. Prior to the new £50
note coming into circulation, the bundles were of £2,500
each. Once the new smaller £50 note came into circulation
recently, the bundles increased to £5,000 each.
4. I therefore had easy access to cash during
1987, 1988 and 1989 without my needing to arrange for it to be
specially drawn. There were a number of occasions when Mr Hamilton
came to see me either at Harrods or at my London residence at
60 Park Lane, and on each occasion when he and I were alone, he
asked for money. Whilst I knew that I was already paying Ian
Greer Associates a consultancy fee, Mr Hamilton would tell me
that he was undertaking a lot of work for me, that it was expensive
and that he needed money for that work. I felt embarrassed to
turn him down and so I invariably gave him a bundle of £2,500.
Our meetings were alone and although my diary confirms the dates
of the meetings, no-one else would have seen the money being given
to Mr Hamilton. The money I gave to Mr Hamilton did not correspond
to a particular "tariff" for services. During the period
I made payments to Mr Hamilton he was undertaking a large amount
of Parliamentary work for me - Questions, Early Day Motions,
letters to Ministers, for example. I cannot now remember the specific
activities he undertook each time he visited me to ask for money.
Indeed, some of what he did, for example, speaking to other MPs
or Government Ministers, is not recorded. I can only say that
each time I made a payment to him at his request, it was because
he had or was going to undertake some Parliamentary work for which
it was appropriate for him to be paid.
5. In the autumn of 1994, when I discussed the
payments I had made to Neil Hamilton with the Defendants, I believe
I mentioned that I paid Mr Hamilton £2,000 per question.
This was simply a rough guess on my part as to how much I appeared
to be paying per question and, as I have explained, was not a
figure charged to me as there was no tariff for such services.
6. The dates when payments of cash were made
were 2 June 1987, 18 June 1987, 8 July 1987, 18 February 1988,
19 July 1988, 4 October 1988, 25 January 1989 and 27 July 1989.
These payments took place over a period of considerable parliamentary
activity by Mr Hamilton, but no specific payment related directly
to a particular action by him. I understood them to be payments
(additional to any made by Mr Greer) to cover all of Mr Hamilton's
activities.
7. I made special payments at two other times
(apart from the regular fees paid) to Ian Greer for payment to
Neil Hamilton and Tim Smith. The first of these was in May 1987
when I gave Ian Greer two cheques of £12,000 and £6,000
to enable him to pay Neil Hamilton and Tim Smith for their Parliamentary
work. I was specifically asked by Ian Greer for this money to
pay Messrs Hamilton and Smith and I pad it to him for that reason.
These two cheques were not paid to Ian Greer to pay to Conservative
Candidates in the 1987 General Election as the Plaintiffs allege.
Indeed I had already made substantial donations to the Conservative
Party at about this time totalling £250,000 through Lord
MacAlpine, and would not have paid any further sums to Ian Greer
for this purpose. Secondly, I made a payment of £13,333 to
Ian Greer in February 1990. Mr Greer told me that his was, again,
for services rendered by MPs including Mr Hamilton and for which
he had to pay.
8. I can therefore confirm that cash payments
were made to Mr Hamilton in two ways: firstly, in face to face
meetings, and secondly, through Ian Greer.
9. On other occasions I gave Mr Hamilton Harrods
gift vouchers. Although we now have a numbering system for vouchers
in Harrods which resembles the numbers on the bottom of cheques
so that the individual vouchers can be traced, our gift vouchers
were administered by House of Fraser in Glasgow until May 1991
(when the administration moved to Harrods in London) and no records
covering vouchers issued prior to this date now exist. When Mr
Hamilton came to see me on occasion he would broadly hint that
he wanted to "go shopping". I responded to these hints
by giving him Harrods gift vouchers. On 15 December 1988 I gave
Mr Hamilton £3,000 of gift vouchers, on 16 February 1989
I gave him £1,000 of gift vouchers, on 20 February 1989
I gave him £1,000 of gift vouchers and on 21 November 1989
I gave him £3,000 of gift vouchers.
10. In addition, Mr Hamilton's visit to the
Ritz Hotel in Paris is I think well known. At Mr Hamilton's request,
he and his wife stayed for six nights in September 1987 at the
Ritz Hotel in Paris of which I and my brothers are the ultimate
owners. They occupied Apartment 356 during their stay. I understand
that Mr Hamilton has suggested that he and his wife occupied
my private rooms; there are no private rooms at the Ritz. Apartment
356 is an ordinary double room. My private guests in Paris are
accommodated at private apartments which I own on the Champs
Elysees. The bill for the Hamilton's stay came to Ffr 21,104.45
(excluding accommodation). This was equivalent to £2,119.77
at 1987 rates of exchange, or £3,010.07 today (after uplifting
in line with the RPI index). Whilst Mr Hamilton was staying as
my guest, he was asked to sign a bill for everything but accommodation
to confirm he had received the meals and extras itemised. The
value of the accommodation he occupied was Ffr 14,760.00. This
was equivalent to £1,482.52 in 1987, or £2,105.18 today
(after uplifting in line with the RPI index). The total bill
for Mr Hamilton's six night stay was therefore £3,602.29
(£5,115.25 today).
11. Mr Hamilton asked if he and his wife could
stay again at the Ritz a week or so later, but I instructed the
Hotel to indicate to Mr Hamilton that there was no accommodation
available as I felt that he was abusing my hospitality.
12. Mr Hamilton is not the only MP to whom I
paid cash for parliamentary work. For example, I mentioned earlier
that Mr Smith was one of the MPs recruited by Mr Greer for the
lobbying operation. Mr Smith also came on occasion to meetings
alone with me in 1987, 1988 and 1989 and I also gave him cash
for the work he was doing. The sums involved in total were very
much less than I paid to Mr Hamilton. I have a less clear recollection
of the exact dates and amounts paid to Tim Smith because the
sums involved are much smaller - he was far less greedy - and
because he stopped undertaking Parliamentary work at a fairly
early stage after being frightened off by Tiny Rowland. When
Mr Smith resigned from the Government at the end of October last
year his resignation letter confirmed that he and I were first
introduced in 1986, he agreed to help me, he raised some of my
concerns in parliamentary questions and in an adjournment debate,
I paid him fees, and that our relationship ended in 1989. He
also confirmed that he included the payments he received from
me in his tax returns.
13. I confirm that the contents of this statement
are true to the best of my knowledge, information and belief.
Mohamed Al-Fayed
23 June 1995
|
