Blank cheques 'stolen from Princess Michael'

Three blank cheques signed by Princess Michael of Kent were stolen from Kensington Palace by an Oddbins delivery man, a court heard today.

Five months later one of the cheques, filled out for £25,000, was used in an attempted deception, it was alleged.

Princess Michael had left the signed cheques on a tray in her apartment for her personal secretary to pay tradesmen while she went to watch tennis at Wimbledon last year. The deliveries were for a cocktail party for 250 guests at the palace to celebrate her silver wedding that day.

Kamel Haddouche, 40, from Putney, stole the cheques while working as a driver's assistant for Oddbins, Middlesex Crown Court heard. Last November his friend Mustapha Boukhalfa, 38, from Fulham, tried to pay the cheque made out for £25,000 into his bank account but it was stopped by suspicious bank staff. The court heard that the Coutts bank cheques did not carry her full name but had a crown printed on the top left and bore her initials MC for her Christian name Marie-Christine.

In a statement read to the court, Princess Michael said: "I signed a number of blank cheques left in my chequebook. I certainly didn't authorise the payment of £25,000." She said she had never met the defendants. Neither the princess nor her assistant realised the theft had taken place until Boukhalfa presented the stolen cheque.

When interviewed by police he claimed to have been sent the ?25,000 along with a covering letter saying he had won the money in a competition.

"He must have known it was stolen," said Samantha Cohen, prosecuting. She said that had the £25,000 been credited to his account he would no doubt have split the money with Haddouche.

Boukhalfa denies handling stolen goods and he and Haddouche deny attempting to obtain £25,000 by deception and using a cheque as a false instrument. Haddouche, whose fingerprints were found on the cheque and chequebook, pleaded guilty to theft at an earlier hearing. The case continues.