A royal chauffeur allowed two undercover journalists into Buckingham Palace for cash and let one of them sit in Queen Elizabeth II’s Bentley car, a newspaper reported yesterday.
The News of the World tabloid said the security breach took place after two of its journalists, posing as wealthy businessmen from the Middle East, paid a chauffeur £1,000 (US$1,600).
They got into the palace without being searched or checked, despite walking right past a uniformed police officer in a security booth, the paper reported.
A spokeswoman for Buckingham Palace said: “Any security matter is taken very seriously and we will look into these allegations.”
WORRIES
London’s Metropolitan Police also said they were worried by the report.
“We are naturally concerned about the issues raised by this story and are liaising with palace officials about their staff security arrangements,” Scotland Yard said in a statement.
The queen was staying at Buckingham Palace at the time of the alleged breach on Friday, the paper said.
As well as the Bentley, which is used for state occasions, the chauffeur also showed the reporters the queen’s personal car — a 2005 V8 Daimler with a floor which has been specially raised to accommodate her short legs, it was reported.
They also saw Princess Anne’s green Bentley on their visit.
PRECEDENT
The incident would not be the first time security at Buckingham Palace and other royal palaces has been violated in recent years.
In 2003, a journalist from the Daily Mirror newspaper got a job as a footman at Buckingham Palace — the monarch’s London residence — with a false reference.
This allowed him access to the queen’s breakfast table and the bedroom where then-US president George W. Bush and his wife were due to stay on an imminent state visit.
At Windsor Palace — the queen’s favorite home, just west of London — two journalists from the Sun newspaper claimed to have smuggled a fake bomb past security days before the wedding of Prince Charles and wife Camilla in the town in 2004.
And in 2003, Aaron Barschak, a comedian dressed as al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, gatecrashed Prince William’s 21st birthday party at Windsor.
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