Jury hears Diana conspiracy theory

Photographer James Andanson, who owned a white Fiat Uno, was summoned by French police in February 1998 to account for his movements in the early hours of August 31 1997 following an anonymous tip-off to officers in Britain, the court heard.

But Mr Andanson, who died two years later, initially thought that the summons was a joke and responded accordingly, the jury sitting at the High Court was told.

Jean Claude Mules, a retired major in the French Brigade Criminelle, told the inquest jury that Mr Andanson quickly provided documentary evidence of his movements around the time of the crash and satisfied them that he was not the driver of the mystery white Fiat. But 10 years on, the subject of James Andanson remains a live issue at the high-profile inquest into the deaths of Diana and her lover Dodi Fayed.

Mohamed al Fayed, Dodi's father, is convinced that the crash in the Alma Tunnel in Paris was not an accident but the result of a murder plot orchestrated by MI6 at the behest of the Duke of Edinburgh.

The jury has been told that Mr al Fayed believes Mr Andanson was an agent of the security services and is convinced that he was in the tunnel that night. But Mr Andanson told police that he was at his home at Lignieres, 177 miles south of the French capital, at the time of the crash.

The jury has been told that Mr Andanson did indeed own a white Fiat Uno with a dent in it from an accident he said happened at least two years before the Alma Tunnel tragedy when he suffered a prang on a roundabout.

Mr Andanson sold his Fiat Uno in October 1997, shortly after the crash.

The jurors have been told of evidence that the Mercedes in which the Princess was travelling collided with a white Fiat Uno seconds before it crashed into the 13th pillar of the tunnel.

As well as being told of paint scratches backing up this assertion, they have also held small fragments of shattered plastic from a broken light believed to have come from a Fiat Uno. But the court has heard that the car in question has never been traced despite efforts by the French police.