Mohamed Al Fayed made four-figure donation to police - a year after first sex attack accusations

Mohamed Al Fayed grins behind the wheel of a £7,000 car he donated to the Met Police who failed to arrest the tycoon, despite a string of female employees accusing him sexual assault

Mohamed Al Fayed is pictured in a £7,000 car he donated to the Met Police who failed to arrest the tycoon despite a string of female employees accusing him sexual assault.

Wearing a senior officer's hat, the smiling Harrods boss became the "first businessman to sponsor" the force in 1996, a year after he was first publicly accused of sexual misconduct. It raises questions about whether the Met investigated Al Fayed "without fear or favour" when at least five women and girls made allegations against him before his death, aged 94, last year.

Details of the sponsorship deal came to light after dozens of women came forward to accuse Al Fayed of sexual abuse and rape in the wake of a BBC documentary last week Female Harrods employees made sex allegations against Al Fayed to the police in 2008, 2015, 2018, 2021 and 2023.

But he was never arrested, despite four of his accusers coming forward after the Met promised to improve abuse investigations in the wake of the 2012 Jimmy Savile scandal. The Crown Prosecution Service was only asked to consider charges in 2008 and 2015, when he was questioned by appointment for just half an hour.

Brazen Al Fayed was pictured handing over keys of the white, four-door Rover, emblazoned with the words "This car is sponsored by Harrods" to Supt Peter Dowse outside Harrods. Mr Dowse said at the time that he was "delighted" to accept the car, adding that sponsorship did not compromise police ethics.

He said: "We look very carefully at who we would accept sponsorship from and we are only too delighted to accept it from Harrods." Al Fayed told reporters: "It is nice just to be able to help," adding that he was pleased to assist "the greatest metropolitan police force in the world".

He was speaking two years after a young woman had come forward to Harrods' bosses to accuse Al Fayed of sexually assaulting her. But instead of arresting the billionaire, Met Police officers held the innocent young woman in cells overnight on trumped up theft claims.

She later accepted an out of court settlement from Al Fayed but fled the country following threats. Speaking from his Essex home this week, retired Mr Dowse said the deal had been signed off by senior officers at the Met, then headed by Sir Paul Condon. He said the car was used on patrols by Special Constables in Kensington and Chelsea.

Referring to Al Fayed as "Mohamed", Mr Dowse said: "The embarrassing thing for me was when his PR, who was an ex-BBC TV correspondent [Michael Cole], took my hat off me and gave it to him. I got told off... well I didn't get told off... I was asked 'how did that happen?'. I said 'what did you want me to do? Have a fight with Mohamed in the street in front of BBC and ITV?'"

Mr Dowse said he had never been aware of any sex claims against Al Fayed. He said: "All I know is it was quite a strict regime, you know the security and everything, that my sergeant, who was my operations sergeant, left the police and went and joined him as one of his senior security officers."

Vanity Fair published an article accusing Al Fayed of racism, staff surveillance and sexual misconduct in 1995, a year before he bought the car. His head of security, former Met Chief Supt John Macnamara, dubbed "Mac the Knife", was allegedly at the heart of Al Fayed's chilling campaign to silence his victims.

He joined Harrons in 1986 from the Met where he served on the Fraud Squad and the "Line of Duty" CIB department Macnamara was described by one former Harrods colleague as a "nasty piece of work". Tom Bower's 1998 book "Fayed: The Unauthorised Biography" revealed how Macnamara cultivated important Yard contacts for his boss, calling in favours from officers he and his security team drank with.

At higher levels, officers would be wined and dined, given hospitality and showered with gifts, including Christmas hampers, Mr Bower wrote. Dinner guests would routinely be given bottles of whisky while senior officers were given jumbo gift bags for their families.

One officer was said to be supplied with his favourite ties, courtesy of the security department. Dozens of women have come forward to say they were raped or sexually assaulted by the Egyptian businessman. The Met declined to comment.