Prince Charles 'met fixer William Bortrick at centre of cash for honours storm ...

The Prince of Wales met the 'fixer' at the heart the 'cash for honours' scandal at least nine times, it has today been reported.

William Bortrick, 42, who is reportedly a paid advisor to Saudi tycoon Mahfouz Marei Mubarak bin Mahfouz, is said to have met the Prince both in Britain and abroad.

Mr Bortrick, the publisher of Burke's Peerage, a British genealogical and peerage database, reportedly received thousands of pounds to help secure an honour for Dr bin Mahfouz - a major donor to Charles's charities.

He previously claimed, in a draft letter reported on earlier this month by the Sunday Times, that the Prince was '100 per cent' behind an offer to help secure Dr bin Mahfouz UK citizenship.

This was previously denied by Clarence House, who said the future king, 72, had 'no knowledge' of the cash for honours allegations on the basis of donation to his charities.

Today the Sunday Times has reported that Mr Bortrick met with the Prince in England, Scotland and Saudi Arabia over the past seven years. 

He also sent Mr Bortrick a personal Christmas card last year, the paper reports.

However MailOnline understood that the meetings between the Prince and Mr Bortrick were all in an official capacity and never one-to-one.

The latest reports will likely pose questions of whether the Prince was aware of Mr Bortrick's reported status as a paid consultant and his links to Dr bin Mahfouz. 

According to the Sunday Times, Mr Bortrick and Prince Charles are known to have met in October 2014 at the opening of a garden at Dumfries House.

The garden is funded by Dr bin Mahfouz, who at the time was seeking UK citizenship, and who has donated more than £1.5million to the prince's charities.

In the same year, in a draft letter to Dr Mahfouz, Mr Bortrick said that Dr Mahfouz's application for citizenship would 'now take the highest priority', adding: 'His Royal Highness supports these applications one hundred percent, as there is no greater example of contribution [than] yours, therefore this should be rewarded and recognised accordingly.'

It is these claims that Clarence House say Prince Charles had 'no knowledge of'.

The pair are then said to have met at the British embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Dr bin Mahfouz and the Prince's former valet, Michael Fawcett, who resigned as chief of the Prince's Foundation amid the cash for honours scandal, were also present.

He is also said to have met Mr Bortrick at Buckingham Palace in 2016 during the presentation of Dr Bin Mafouz's CBE. 

The ceremony was not published in the Court Circular - an official record that lists the engagements carried out by members of the Royal Family.

Prince Charles is not responsible for choosing honours - which are selected by an honours committee who then pass their recommendations to the Cabinet Office.  

According to the Sunday Times, the last meeting was in July 2020, when Prince Charles went on a walk with Mr Bortrick in the Gardens of the Castle of Mey in Scotland.

The walk, which was also attended by the gardener and a trustee of the Prince’s Foundation, came weeks after Mr Bortrick had brokered a six-figure donation to the Prince's Foundation.

The donation was made in return for a meeting between the Prince and Dmitry Leus, a Russian banker, who was invited to two private events at Charles’s royal residences in Scotland. 

Shortly after the meeting Mr Botrick wrote to Mr Leus saying: 'I have just had an excellent private visit with HRH the Prince of Wales — who appreciates your generosity and asked me to send his personal good wishes to you.' 

However the meetings were cancelled because of Covid and concerns about Mr Lues' past.