PRINCE Charles will NEVER accept cash donations again after he was found in hot water being given Fortnum & Mason bags and a suitcase stuffed with 3million Euros.
The Prince of Wales was handed three cash donations from former Qatari PM Sheikh Hamed bin Jassim between 2011 and 2015, it has emerged.
The cash was immediately handed over to Charles’s charities and no suggestion the payments were illegal.
A senior royal source has today revealed the prince has accepted no cash payments in the past five years and the practice has now been banned.
A senior royal source said: “The Prince of Wales operates on advice situations, contexts change over the years.
“I can only talk about what I got personal experience of.
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“But. I can say with certainty in, more than half a decade with a situation as it has evolved this has not happened and it would not happen again.
“That was then, this is now, and they are not the same.”
Prince Charles received the three cash donations in person from the former prime minister between 2011 and 2015.
It is claimed that on one occasion the money was handed over in a holdall at a meeting at Clarence House.
On another, the paper reported the cash was contained in carrier bags from the department store Fortnum and Mason.
The heir to the throne has met HBJ several times, including during a 2013 Middle East tour while he was Qatar PM.
However the meetings where the money was given do not appear on the list of official engagements undertaken by working royals.
A Charity Commission spokeswoman said on Sunday: “We are aware of reports about donations received by The Prince of Wales’s Charitable Fund.
“We will review the information to determine whether there is any role for the commission in this matter.”
Charities are allowed to accept donations in cash, but they must exercise due diligence to avoid money laundering and corruption.
Private bank Coutts is reported to have collected the money at the request of Palace aides and deposited it into the fund’s account.
THE SAUDI’S
Donations to Prince Charles’s charities have come under scrutiny in recent months following allegations that one of them offered a Saudi donor help to secure a UK honour and citizenship.
Michael Fawcett, former chief executive of the Prince’s Trust and one of Charles’s closest aides, allegedly offered to help Mahfouz Marei Mubarak bin Mahfouz to secure a knighthood and British citizenship in return for donations.
Mr Fawcett stepped down last year over a leaked letter to the Saudi businessman.
He was one of the most prolific donors to the prince’s charities and even has a forest named after him — the Mahfouz Wood at the 15th-century Castle of Mey in Scotland, formerly the Queen Mother’s home.
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He was awarded a CBE at a private ceremony at Buckingham Palace in 2016.
At the time, Clarence House insisted Charles had “no knowledge” of the alleged offers.
