Prince Charles borrowed £3k from cops to pay for travel - India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

It has emerged that Prince Charles had once borrowed nearly 3,000 pounds from protection officers to pay for his travel expenses. Charles, 61, returned 2,744.34 pounds to Scotland Yard after his Royal Protection team paid for what is thought to be flights abroad on a Metropolitan Police-issue corporate American Express card. According to official documents, Clarence House paid the money back on December 4 2007, and the Met cashed the cheque on December 17 of that year. The previous month Charles and his wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, had visited Turkey and Uganda. Scotland Yard said it is normal procedure for protection officers to pay for things in this manner, with the money being repaid at a later date. "On occasion, and if the need arises, protection officers will incur expenditure on behalf of principals, which are then repaid," the Telegraph quoted a spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Police as telling the Independent. But one member of the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) said the practice was widely unknown and was "totally unacceptable". "The Royals should have known this was happening and they really ought to have known better," Jenny Jones, the Green Party member of the MPA and former deputy mayor of London, said. "If they need things paid for then they should have their own office pay for it or give their protection teams their own cards or cash. "They should not expect the Metropolitan Police to pay for things like flights and then casually pay it back at a later date," she stated. Ken Wharfe, a former Metropolitan Police protection officer for Princess Diana, said it was commonplace amongst him and his former colleagues. "It is very rare for members of the Royal Family to carry cash or credit cards so protection officers paying for things is quite a normal practice," he said. "When I worked with the late Princess Diana I did this on numerous occasions for things like meals at restaurants to hotel bookings. "It is usually for unofficial, private business and it is done for security reasons, to keep things as private as possible. Official trips are usually paid for by the individual Royal's office," he added. A spokeswoman for Prince Charles said: "We would not comment on this matter."