Harrods plots legal action against estate of former owner al-Fayed

Harrods is preparing to take legal action against the estate of its former owner, Mohamed al-Fayed, as the multimillion-pound legal bill for compensating his sexual abuse victims continues to escalate.

Sky News has learnt that the Knightsbridge department store, which has been owned by a Qatari sovereign wealth fund since 2010, plans to file a so-called passing-over application in the High Court as early as next week. The intention of the application is to secure the removal of Mr al-Fayed's estate's current executors, and replace them with professional executors to administer it instead.

Professional executors would be expected to investigate the assets and liabilities of the estate, while Harrods insiders claimed that the current executors - thought to be close family members of the deceased billionaire - had "ignored" correspondence from its lawyers. Sources close to Harrods said the passing-over application paved the way for it to potentially seek to recover substantial sums from the estate of the Egyptian tycoon as it contends with a compensation bill likely to run to tens of millions of pounds.

In a statement issued to Sky News on Saturday, a Harrods spokesperson said: "We are considering legal options that would ensure that no doors are closed on any future action and that a route to compensation and accountability from the Fayed estate remains open to all." Mr al-Fayed is believed to have raped or sexually abused hundreds of women during his 25-year tenure as the owner of Harrods. He died in 2023, since when a torrent of details of his abuse have been made public by many of his victims.

Earlier this year, Sky News revealed details of the compensation scheme designed by Harrods to award six-figure sums to women he abused. In a form outlining the details of the Harrods redress scheme overseen by MPL Legal, which is advising the department store, it referred to the potential "for Harrods to recover compensation paid out under this Scheme from Mohamed Fayed's estate".

"You are not obliged to assist with any such claim for recovery," the form told potential claimants. "However, if you would be willing to assist Harrods including potentially by giving evidence against Fayed's estate, please indicate below." This weekend, there appeared to be confusion about the legal representation of Mr al-Fayed's estate.

In March, the BBC reported that Fladgate, a UK-based law firm, was representing it in an article which said that women who worked for him as nannies and private air stewards were preparing to file legal claims against the estate. This weekend, however, a spokesman for Fladgate declined to comment on whether it was acting for Mr al-Fayed's estate, citing confidentiality restrictions.

A source close to the law firm, meanwhile, insisted that it was not acting for the estate. KP Law, another law firm acting for some al-Fayed abuse survivors, has criticised the Harrods-orchestrated process, but has itself faced questions over proposals to take up to 25% of compensation awards in exchange for handling their cases.

Harrods insiders said there was a growing risk that Mr al-Fayed's estate would not be responsibly administered given that the second anniversary of his death was now approaching. They added that as well as Harrods itself seeking contribution for compensation paid out for Mr al-Fayed's abuse, its legal action would also potentially open way for survivors to claim directly against the estate.

Victims with no direct connection to Harrods are not eligible for any compensation through the store's own redress scheme. Even if Harrods' passing-over application was approved by the High Court, any financial recovery for the department store would be subject to a number of additional legal steps, sources said.

"The passing-over action would achieve the goals of acknowledgement and accountability from the estate for survivors who don't have the resource to undertake a passing-over application themselves," an insider said this weekend..