Car buyer 'worked for Al Fayed'

Michel Kerbois attempted to buy a battered white Fiat Uno - which police later seized as part of their inquiries - but was refused permission to take it, Diana's inquest heard. Car dealer Jean-Francois Langlois bought the vehicle from photographer James Andanson nine weeks after the Paris crash in which Diana, Mr Al Fayed's son Dodi and driver Henri Paul were killed.

Mr Al Fayed believes the car may be the mystery white Fiat that collided with the Mercedes Diana was travelling in moments before the crash in the Alma Tunnel in the early hours of August 31 1997. The Harrods tycoon claims Mr Andanson, who was found dead in controversial circumstances in May 2000, was working for MI6 in a plot to murder Diana.

The court has heard that police examined the Fiat Uno once owned by Mr Andanson but ruled it out. Although he is said to have later claimed he was in Paris on the night of the crash, police were satisfied from motorway receipts that he was almost 200 miles away at the time.

Mr Langlois told the jury how Mr Andanson came to his dealership at Chateauroux south of Paris on November 4 1997 to sell the Uno for scrap in a part-exchange deal. Three months later, police investigating a tip-off that Mr Andanson may have been involved arrived and took the car, which had not yet been sent for scrap, away for tests.

But giving evidence by video link from Paris he confirmed that an inquiry agent called Michel Kerbois had called at his garage in the week before police arrived.

"He said that he was acting on behalf of the police doing some kind of supplementary work," Mr Langlois said. "He knew exactly what kind of vehicle I had, that the Fiat Uno was there and actually he even suggested that he could buy it."

But Mr Langlois refused to let him take it away as he did not consider it roadworthy, he explained.

Counsel to the inquest Jonathan Hough asked him: "Did you later become aware that he was in fact an inquiry agent paid by Mr Al Fayed?" He replied that he did.

The court also heard from Christophe Lafaille, a former Paris Match journalist, who was due to meet Mr Andanson for lunch in Paris in May 4 2000, the day he is thought to have killed himself. Mr Lafaille told the court he believed it had been suicide, saying: "He was a very down-to-earth person, very impulsive too, it would not have surprised me at all."