Tycoon James Caan paid £5,000 to a firm that helps people get honours - and was later awarded a CBE. The businessman, who has appeared on the BBC’s Dragons’ Den, received the award from Prince William at Buckingham Palace last month. The gong was granted in recognition of the 54-year-old’s services to entrepreneurship and his charitable contributions. Mr Caan, who is worth £100million and was awarded a CBE by Prince William last month, paid £5,000 to Awards Intelligence, a firm that helps people get honours . But Mr Caan, who is worth £100million, has also been caught in controversy – once offering to buy a baby for £750 from a poor family in his native Pakistan. A source close to Mr Caan confirmed that he paid £5,000 to Awards Intelligence, a firm specialising in securing honours. The source said Mr Caan had already been nominated for an honour and had simply paid for ‘advice on how the system works and its procedure as he was unfamiliar with the awards process’. Mark Llewellyn-Slade, managing director of Awards Intelligence, refused to discuss any named clients of his firm, saying only that around half of them went on to secure honours. Awards Intelligence describes itself as the ‘UK’s leading Queen’s Honour Nomination Drafting Expert’. It offers to help ambitious candidates ‘receive the recognition they deserve’ by ‘crafting’ their nominations. According to managing director Mark Llewellyn-Slade around 100 clients use its services every year. They pay from £2,900 plus VAT for a lower-rung honour up to £10,900 for those seeking a knighthood. Mr Llewellyn-Slade, who is a PR expert, claims that a nomination put in by a member of the public has only a 10 per cent chance of success – compared with 50 per cent for his clients. Blame for the creation of an honours ‘industry’ can be laid at the door of John Major because when prime minister he brought in the open, ‘lollipop lady’ nominations process. His firm charges £5,900 for a nomination for a CBE to be ‘professionally drafted’. Critics of the service say it is biased against lollipop ladies and unsung heroes who cannot afford such help. The Cabinet Office, which oversees the issuing of around 2,400 honours a year, expressly says it ‘does not endorse the use of fee-charging drafting services’. Although the services are not banned, those who use them are asked to tick a box on the nomination form. A spokesman for the Cabinet Office says nominees are not told that they have been nominated for awards to avoid possible disappointment. Those offered an honour are told a month before the public announcement, giving them the chance to accept or decline. Last night a former friend of Mr Caan said: ‘Most millionaires are happy to keep a low profile and enjoy their money, but James Caan has been desperate for public recognition for years, which explains why he used to be on Dragons’ Den. ‘I knew he’d used Awards Intelligence before to successfully draft nominations for a business award, then I heard he was paying them in relation to a Queen’s honour. Now he’s got a CBE. ‘It’s a shame that ordinary people seeking honours don’t have access to the sort of advice he can afford.’ Mr Caan was previously mired in controversy after offering to buy a baby from Pakistan for £750. A source close to him brushed that incident off as an 'emotional response' to the flooding there . But the source close to Mr Caan insisted: ‘As Mr Caan had an existing relationship with Awards Intelligence he felt it entirely appropriate to seek advice on the procedural process of the UK’s honour system after he was nominated. ‘Any suggestion that Mr Caan instructed Awards Intelligence or any other third party to nominate him or to in any way exert any pressure or bring influence to bear on the honours committee to obtain an unfair advantage is completely untrue.’ The source added that Mr Caan’s rejected offer to buy a baby had been ‘an emotional response’ to the misery caused by floods in Pakistan. When asked by the Daily Mail about his honour, Mr Caan refused to comment. The tycoon was also the subject of controversy two years ago when he was made a ‘social mobility tsar’ by the Government. He criticised nepotism and said parents should let their children stand on their own two feet – but it later emerged that his daughters Hanah and Jemma had worked at his firms. One was also put on the board of trustees of his foundation.
James Caan paid Awards Intelligence to professionally draft a nomination . Using drafting service is not illegal, but people are asked to tick form box . Dragons' Den star was handed honour by Prince William last month .