'Sacked' Harrods chief flies to Switzerland

PETER BOLLIGER, the former managing director of Harrods, flew out of Britain for Switzerland yesterday amid bitter recriminations about whether he resigned or was sacked from his pounds 100,000 post, writes Mary Braid.

Harrods claimed it had presented a 'dossier' of evidence to the police yesterday concerning alleged 'defalcations'. The store's complaints appear to centre on pounds 3,000 of personal calls Mr Bolliger is alleged to have made to South Africa on a business phone installed in his home.

Mr Bolliger claims he resigned because Mohamed al- Fayed, the store's owner, was so keen on running the company by himself he would 'even go behind a counter and cut salami . . . you simply can't have two kings'.

Mr Bolliger's daughter, Larissa, 24, said her father had no plans to return to the UK. On Sunday, Harrods said he had been dismissed on 19 April for 'incompetence' and 'dereliction of duty'.