DAVID CAMERON, the Conservative leader, accepted hospitality from a company owned by a Macedonian playboy at the centre of criminal investigations into alleged fraud and tax evasion.

The company paid for a four-day “junket” during which Cameron watched England’s European Championship football game in Skopje, the Macedonian capital.

His hosts were keen to lobby Cameron on Macedonia’s case for entry to the European Union, which would bring them commercial benefits. Cameron later spoke in the Commons pressing the Balkan state’s EU claims.

Details of Cameron’s trip in September 2003 have emerged after his confirmation as Tory leader. The cost of his stay in the Aleksandar Palace, the five-star hotel used by the England team, and his match ticket were met by Orka Holdings, one of the country’s top textile companies. Cameron says he paid for his flights.

Orka has been at the centre of a number of criminal investigations in the past two years for alleged tax evasion, employment of illegal workers and multi-million-pound Vat fraud. It is owned by Jordan Kamcev, a tycoon whose two divorces from the same woman and his new lover have made his private life the stuff of soap opera in the press. Police have issued a warrant for his arrest to question him over alleged tax offences.

In one raid on an Orka factory it was reported that illegal workers almost suffocated after being hidden in cardboard boxes to avoid the inspectors.

Cameron — who was a back-bench MP at the time of the visit and now campaigns for “compassionate conservatism” — declared the hospitality from Orka in the Commons register of members’ interests.

The trip was organised through Andrew Feldman, a college friend and tennis partner who accompanied him to the football match. Feldman, a 39-year-old textile millionaire, is a member of Cameron’s Notting Hill set and is tipped to become a deputy treasurer of the Tory party. He has been cast as a Tory version of Lord Levy — a reference to Tony Blair’s fundraiser — after handling Cameron’s campaign finances.

Jayroma, his UK-based family company — which donated £10,000 to Cameron’s campaign — works in partnership with Orka, distributing its clothing in western Europe and helping to finance at least one of its factories.

Cameron has described hospitality from Orka as a “junket”. In a diary he wrote for The Guardian he said: “All right, I admit it. Part of the attraction of the visit was the chance to watch the vital England-Macedonia football international.” He eulogised David Beckham, scorer of the second goal in England’s 2-1 victory.

But there was also another purpose to the trip. In the days before the match, Cameron met Boris Trajkovski, the president, and other politicians in the former Yugoslav republic.

The visit appears to have persuaded Cameron that Macedonia had a strong case to join Nato and the EU, membership of which would be beneficial to Feldman’s company and Orka because it would lift trade tariffs.

Returning to Britain, Cameron took up the country’s cause. Intervening in a Commons debate in March 2004, he called for ministers to give Macedonia assurances about its prospects for EU membership.

He also raised the matter in his diary article. He wrote: “(Europe must) ensure there is a speedy framework for getting the former Yugoslav republics into the EU so they can benefit from free trade and structural funds.”

The Balkan state is now officially a candidate for EU membership.

Last week, Feldman told The Sunday Times that Orka was “terribly excited” about Cameron’s leadership victory as he is regarded as a friend to the country.

He said the purpose of the trip was to show Cameron his business. “I’ve got some factories there and I said to him it might be fun for him to see what I did for a living. And to go and see the football match, which happened to coincide with that weekend.”

During the visit, Cameron met Kamcev’s sister, who also works for Orka. Feldman says Cameron was not, however, introduced to Kamcev.

Five months after the visit, the Macedonian ministry of the interior announced that Orka’s companies were being investigated for alleged fraud, tax evasion and breaches of employment rules. Another investigation, launched in March this year, alleged Kamcev and his father had evaded nearly €1m in Vat between 2002 and 2004. They denied the accusations.

Sterjo Zikov, the public prosecutor in Skopje, said last week that investigations were continuing. He confirmed a warrant had been issued for Kamcev’s arrest but believed he was abroad.

Feldman, whose hotel bill and match ticket were also paid for by Orka, says he was unaware of the investigations.

A spokesman for the Conservative leader said: “David Cameron was interested in the challenges facing the Balkans and visited Skopje on a fact-finding trip in 2003. He met a number of politicians to learn from their experience in rebuilding their country . . . Andrew Feldman accompanied him on the trip because he knew the region.”

A spokeswoman for Orka said the company was challenging a number of criminal proceedings through the courts. Kamcev has claimed the investigations are politically inspired.

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