Emmanuel Macron's disgraced former security aide, sacked this summer for beating a protester, has sparked a further scandal by admitting that he was still travelling on diplomatic passports.

Prosecutors are investigating allegations that Alexandre Benalla illegally used diplomatic passports, which should have been surrendered after he was fired in July, to travel to Africa and Israel. He is also suspected of trying to profit from his connections as a former presidential insider to win consultancy contracts.

“Perhaps I was wrong to use these passports,” Mr Benalla told the Journal du Dimanche newspaper in a telephone interview from an undisclosed foreign country. “But I want to make it clear that I only did it for my own personal comfort, to facilitate my passage through airports.”

He denied that he was travelling on diplomatic papers to enhance his credentials. “I never used them for my business,” the former aide said.

Mr Benalla, 27, a one-time high-flyer who ascended to a senior post in the president’s office after serving as a bodyguard during his election campaign last year, promised to return the passports “in the coming days”.