Phone-hacking whistleblower Steven Nott went unheard

 

Mr Nott said he was "gobsmacked" that anyone could access his mobile phone voicemail messages

Twelve years ago, Welsh salesman Steven Nott pulled over at a motorway services in something of a panic.

He had been without a mobile phone signal for hours because the network was down, and he could not access the voicemail messages that were essential for him to do his job.
So he rang his supplier, Vodafone, on a landline at the services, and was astonished to be told he could access all his voicemails simply by tapping in a default pin number. And so, for that matter, could anyone else.
He says he was "gobsmacked", and shortly after the incident, in 1999, complained not only to Vodafone but took his story to his local newspaper, and to the police.
The South Wales Argus ran the story under the headline "Sales boss reveals security problem".
'So stupid' In words eerily prescient of the phone-hacking scandal, which was to erupt years later, he told the paper: "Vodafone has millions of users, and many of them will be MPs and high-ranking government officials, people with highly sensitive information at their fingertips.
"Unauthorised accessing of someone's message service is on a par with tampering with their mail."
But Vodafone was slow to act. The company did not address the issue for some years. In the meantime, Mr Nott was, by his own admission, becoming obsessed by what he had discovered.
He telephoned the Daily Mirror, hoping to give them a scoop that they would splash across their pages, alerting other phone users to the vulnerability of their mobiles to hacking.
He says that over a period of several days he spoke to somebody on the paper's newsdesk, who was excited by the story.
Mr Nott claims the Mirror said they were planning to run a piece about how celebrities' phones could be hacked.

I'm appalled because I really do seriously think I may have inadvertently started this in the early days”

Steven Nott

He says they told him they had "everybody on to it" as they had a massive bank of phone numbers and were ringing everyone to see how they would react to news their mobiles could be tampered with.

But the Mirror never published the story. Mr Nott says the newspaper did, however, pay him £100.
The owner of the Mirror, Trinity Mirror, said on Saturday: "We are not going to dignify this with a comment."
Next, Mr Nott took his story to the offices of the Sun in Wapping, where he met Paul Crosbie, who was then the newspaper's consumer affairs correspondent.
Mr Crosbie now works in PR, but he confirmed to the BBC Mr Nott's account of his visit.
"I did meet Steven, was surprised by what he'd discovered. I'd never heard of it before he came to the office," he said.
"I wrote up what I thought was a very good story, but it never ran. There was only room for a certain number of stories in the Sun, so a lot did get spiked for whatever reason."
Campaign backfires By this time Mr Nott said he was regretting his actions.
"It didn't take me long to realise what I had done. I couldn't believe I was so stupid to tell a national newspaper how to get hot news for free just by hacking into someone's phone," he said.
"I was on a campaign to raise public awareness and it was backfiring."
Mr Crosbie said: "I don't know whether the information he gave me led to today's events. I only know that I wasn't asked to demonstrate the flaws to anyone."
News International, the publisher of the Sun, declined to comment.
Steven Nott does not claim to be the first person to discover how easy it was to hack a person's mobile phone.
But he does believe he was the first to try to bring it to the attention of the wider public by telling journalists about it. He says he did not anticipate that journalists would use the technique themselves.
"I'm appalled because I really do seriously think I may have inadvertently started this in the early days," he said.
Last month detectives from Operation Weeting, who are investigating the phone-hacking scandal at the News of the World, travelled to Wales to interview Mr Nott.

Phone hacking: police who took tip-off fees to be investigated by taxman

Sir Paul Stephenson said it was likely that senior officers had accepted payments from newspapers. 

 These payments are to be investigated by HMRC.

Police officers who allegedly took payments from newspapers and private investigators could face hefty fines and criminal prosecution after it emerged HM Revenue & Customs is reopening personal tax records to check if payments were fully disclosed.
It is understood HMRC has already begun probing self-assessment forms from previous years in the wake of new information obtained amid the phone-hacking revelations.
Last month Sir Paul Stephenson, the outgoing Metropolitan police commissioner, said documents provided by News International appear to include information on "inappropriate payments" to police officers. It was reported that the company provided the Met with details of payments made by the News of the World to senior officers between 2003 and 2007.
Under HMRC rules any payments earned in connection with an individual's employment are required to be disclosed for tax purposes, even if the payment is deemed illegal.
An HMRC spokesperson said he could not confirm the nature or extent of any investigation into a private individual's tax affairs. But he confirmed that HMRC will act on any new information and that illegal earnings can still be liable for tax.
Action to recover tax from police officers paid illegal tip-off fees relies on the precedent set by the "Miss Whiplash" prostitution case of the early 1990s, which has since entered the HMRC rule book. Miss Whiplash, who also went by the name of Lindi St Clair, was pursued for £112,000 in unpaid income tax in the late 1980s. It culminated in a court case in 1990 where she argued that since it was illegal to live on immoral earnings, taxing her would be committing an offence. But she lost the case and was subsequently made bankrupt.
An HMRC spokesman said: "If you receive money in connection with your employment then it is liable for income tax. Illegality is irrelevant."
Over the past year HMRC has intensified investigations into alleged tax cheats and promised to increase the number of prosecutions. Since April HMRC has had powers to name and shame anyone found to have deliberately evaded £25,000 or more in tax. The scheme will see names, addresses and details of the evasion made public. But those who come clean can avoid having their details published.
Earlier this year the government gave HMRC with an additional £900m to fund more investigations into tax evasion. The aim is to raise an additional £7bn in tax each year by 2014/15. HMRC has also gained new powers to inspect taxpayers' records and documents. In a typical investigation it will examine income and earnings dating back six years. If it discovers an individual has knowingly submitted an inaccurate return or document, or taken active steps to conceal earnings, it can demand repayment of the tax, plus interest and a penalty of up to 100% of the unpaid tax.
The department recently announced the targeting of the restaurant industry with a new task force dedicated to detecting tax and national insurance evasion. But it added that criminal prosecutions were reserved only for the most serious cases of high level fraud.

Milly Dowler family lawyer in police 'clean-out' call

 

Milly Dowler was abducted and murdered by Levi Bellfield in 2002

A "root and branch clean-out" of police who sell confidential information is needed, according to the lawyer acting for Milly Dowler's family.

Mark Lewis said it "appeared" that officers had given information to the press.
In June it was revealed Milly Dowler's phone was hacked by the News of the World after her abduction in 2002.
A Surrey Police officer was taken off the investigation into her disappearance that same year.
A spokeswoman for Surrey Police said the force was helping the Metropolitan Police in the continuing investigation into links between the press and police.
'It's time' Mr Lewis said: "Certain officers appear to have given information out to the press and that doesn't seem to have been taken seriously enough by Surrey Police.
"They talk about one officer who was taken off the Milly Dowler inquiry, but they haven't said what happened to him, they haven't said whether that person is still there, they haven't said whether there are other investigations or have been other investigations.
"It's time for the police, not just the Surrey Police, but for all police forces to clean up their act."
Thirteen-year-old Milly disappeared as she walked home from school in Walton-on-Thames in 2002. Levi Bellfield was convicted of her murder in June 2011.
Last month, the prime minister announced a judge-led inquiry into phone hacking and the ethics of the press.

 

Mark Lewis said it was time for all police forces to clean up their act

 

Public hearings will begin in September and Lord Justice Leveson will report back within a year.
Mr Lewis said: "There ought to be a root and branch clean-out of the force of anyone who's been involved in giving out confidential information, sensitive information and information that relates to the investigation of crime."
A spokeswoman for Surrey Police said the detective was removed from the investigation following a discussion he had had with a retired police officer friend, where it was alleged he provided some details about the investigation.
"There was no evidence to suggest that any information was provided to the media," she said.
"We are currently assisting the Metropolitan Police as part of their ongoing investigation. Therefore we are unable to put all the facts out into the public domain at this time.
"Any detail, such as Surrey Police's knowledge or any contact with the News of the World, could be highly relevant to that investigation and could potentially undermine it.
"Therefore it would be inappropriate for us to make any further comment at this time.''

No plans to call in Piers Morgan, committee chairman says

 

Mr Morgan, who was the Mirror's editor from 1995 to 2004, now presents a show on CNN in the US

MPs on the culture select committee say they have no plans to call ex-Mirror editor Piers Morgan or Mirror Group executives to face questions over Heather Mills' phone-hacking claims.

On Wednesday, Ms Mills alleged a senior Mirror Group journalist had admitted hacking voicemails left for her by her then-boyfriend Sir Paul McCartney.
Earlier, a Tory MP urged Mr Morgan to return to the UK to answer questions.
Mr Morgan has issued a statement denying any involvement in hacking.
The parent group of Mirror Group Newspapers, Trinity Mirror plc, says all its journalists work within the law.
The journalist referred to by Ms Mills is known not to be Mr Morgan.
The select committee's chairman John Whittingdale said MPs were focusing on whether it had been misled by previous witnesses from News International.
He told the BBC the committee "did not have the power to compel people who are not in the UK" to return to the country, but he imagined "there will be some questions which will be put to [Mr Morgan], possibly by the police, on the basis of the evidence that has emerged".
Tory MP Therese Coffey, a member of the culture, media and sport select committee which is also investigating phone hacking, said she felt Ms Mills' allegations were "very strong" and she "didn't see any point in [Mr Morgan] necessarily just staying in the US and issuing statements".
She said Mr Morgan needed to explain an article in 2006 in which he admitted having listened to a recorded message.
"I just hope that the police take the evidence and go with it and if Mr Morgan wants to come back to the UK and help them with their inquiries, and I don't mean being arrested in any way, I'm sure he can add more light," she said.
'Quoting verbatim'

 

Heather Mills was married to Sir Paul McCartney from 2002 to 2008

 

Ms Coffey also said Ms Mills should have reported the incident to the police at the time.
Labour's deputy leader Harriet Harman has also told Sky News Mr Morgan has "questions to answer" over the claims, while Labour MP Jim Sheridan said it would be "helpful if he could clear up these allegations".
On Wednesday, Ms Mills told BBC Newsnight that in early 2001 she had had a row with former Beatle Sir Paul, who later left a conciliatory message on her voicemail while she was away in India.
According to Ms Mills, afterwards a senior journalist from Mirror Group Newspapers rang her and "started quoting verbatim the messages from my machine".
Ms Mills said she challenged the journalist about phone hacking, and they responded: "OK, OK, yeah we did hear it on your voice messages, I won't run it."
The message in question appears to be the same as one which Mr Morgan admitted to having listened to in a Daily Mail article in 2006.

Culture Select Committee member Jim Sheridan: "It would be helpful if he could clear up these allegations"

If Ms Mills' recollection is correct, the call Mr Morgan listened to had been hacked, and a fellow Mirror Group Newspapers journalist had tried to use it to get a story.
Mr Morgan, the Mirror's editor between 1995 and 2004 - and who also edited the News of the World between January 1994 and November 1995 - has consistently denied sanctioning any phone hacking.
In a statement issued through CNN on Wednesday, Mr Morgan said: "Heather Mills has made unsubstantiated claims about a conversation she may or may not have had with a senior executive from a Trinity Mirror newspaper in 2001.
"I have no knowledge of any conversation any executive from other newspapers at Trinity Mirror may or may not have had with Heather Mills.
"To reiterate, I have never hacked a phone, told anyone to hack a phone, nor to my knowledge published any story obtained from the hacking of a phone."
Mirror Group Newspapers is part of Trinity Mirror plc, which publishes over 260 titles including the Daily and Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and People.
Trinity Mirror responded to the allegation by saying: "Our position is clear. All our journalists work within the criminal law and the PCC [Press Complaints Commission] code of conduct."
Paul Connew, a former editor of the Sunday Mirror and a former deputy editor of the Daily Mirror, said he does not believe Mr Morgan was involved in hacking, but he could help the inquiry.
"Obviously Piers does need to answer how he came to hear the messages, he wrote about that himself in the Daily Mail.
"But at the same time, you know, he's not being accused of doing the hacking so, yes, at some point I'm sure as a senior media figure and former editor he will be asked to appear before the judicial inquiry, the Leveson Inquiry, but he probably doesn't feel he's under any obligation to head back here unless summoned to do so," he said.
Editorial review Newsnight has also learned that many other prominent people, including footballer Rio Ferdinand and TV presenter Ulrika Jonsson, also believe they were hacked by the Mirror group.
A former business journalist at the Daily Mirror has alleged that phone hacking was an accepted technique for getting stories, at the time Ms Mills says her phone was hacked.
The allegations made by James Hipwell, who has served time in prison for writing about companies whose shares he owned, were dismissed by a Trinity Mirror spokesman as "totally unsubstantiated".
Meanwhile, Mark Lewis, the solicitor acting for murdered Milly Dowler's family, has urged journalists to publicly admit phone hacking was rife across the newspaper industry.
Mr Lewis said he had been contacted by several reporters who claimed the practice took place at their offices.
Conservative MP Louise Mensch, who sits on the Commons culture, media and sport committee, has tweeted that she thinks an amnesty would be a good idea. She has also called for "a massive industry fund" to compensate hacking and blagging victims.
So far, most of the revelations surrounding phone hacking have centred on the News of the World, which was published by News Group Newspapers, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, until the paper's closure last month.
The prime minister has launched a judge-led inquiry into phone hacking and the ethics of the press.
Last week, Trinity Mirror announced it was to review its editorial "controls and procedures" but said this was being conducted "in light of the current environment" rather than because of a specific allegation.

Personal details of Sun readers hacked

PERSONAL details of Sun newspaper readers - including Miss Scotland applicants - have been stolen by hackers in the latest online security breach.

Britain's biggest selling daily has sent out e-mails warning that information, including addresses, dates of birth and phone numbers, have been accessed. But it added: "No financial or password information was compromised."
which also published the News of the World until it closed last month, said the breach took place on 18 to 19 July, at about the time hackers created a link from the Sun's website to a spoof page that said company owner Rupert Murdoch had been found dead in his garden.

Hacking group LulzSec claimed to be behind that breach but has been silent since alleged spokesman Jake Davis, 18, from Shetland, was arrested on 28 July. Davis faces a string of charges relating to the hacking of organisations such as Sony, the CIA and the UK's Serious Organised Crime Agency, allegedly carried out by LulzSec and another group, Anonymous.

However, a Twitter user, Batteye, has claimed responsibility for taking the Sun readers' details, denied being part of either LulzSec or Anonymous and said the theft took place before 18 July.

Some of the information, including a Scottish students' poll and biographies of Miss Scotland applicants, then appeared on the website Pastebin.

One Miss Scotland entrant said: "I'm not happy at all. I'm kind of worried - because that's everything about me.

"(This data] should have been locked up. This was last year's, so they didn't need to keep my details."

The Batteye post said it was an attempt to expose those who could not be trusted with personal information.

The statement on Pastebin said: "We will begin today by presenting to you various files obtained from the Sun, a company within the News Corp group.

"We will continue, then, by exposing the world for what it is; a less than perfect place where we cannot trust those who we ask to protect our information."

On Twitter, Batteye posted a message saying: "OK - Anon and @lulzsec may have carried out their own attack, with defacements, emails, and whatnot. This is different."

The hacking of the Sun's website follows hacking by sister newspaper the News of the World of celebrities, politicians, war widows and victims of crime, including murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler.

The so-called "hacktivist" code deployed by the likes of LulzSec, combines mischief-making or irony with the aggressive targeting of corporations or large organisations they believe are guilty of wrongdoing.

Chris Duncan, who e-mailed the Sun website users on behalf of News Group Newspapers, apologised that security had not been tight enough to stop the breach.

Man in phone-hacking probe arrest

 

Ex-NoW executive Stuart Kuttner is thought to have been arrested

A man, believed to be former News of the World managing editor Stuart Kuttner, has been arrested as part of the phone-hacking investigation.

The 71-year-old is being interviewed at a north London police station after arriving by appointment.
He was arrested on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications and corruption.
The phone-hacking scandal prompted the closure of the NoW and has resulted in 10 other arrests this year.
The Metropolitan Police investigation into phone hacking is called Operation Weeting.
Another investigation called Operation Elveden is probing allegations of inappropriate payments to officers and is being supervised by the Independent Police Complaints Commission.
Mr Kuttner held a number of senior roles at the NoW before he retired in 2009.
He was the newspaper's managing editor for 22 years and had been its deputy editor prior to that.
The BBC's June Kelly said Mr Kuttner's role would have seen him "very much involved with the finances of the paper, so he was a pivotal figure in the organisation".
"In terms of the pecking order in the company, he is way up there," our correspondent added.
Earlier, a spokesman for News International (NI) - which owned the News of the World - said the company did not know who had been arrested.
NI said it would only be told if it was a current employee.
The man is the 11th person to be arrested since Scotland Yard's latest investigation into phone-hacking was launched in January.
A number of high-profile figures are among those who have been arrested, including former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks and ex-Downing Street communications chief and former NoW editor Andy Coulson.

Police extend phone-hacking probe to computers

• Glenn Mulcaire arrives at the Old Bailey in 2007. Mulcaire, the investigator at the …
• Jonathan May-Bowles (C) aka Jonnie Marbles, leaves Westminster Magistrates Court …

Police investigating phone hacking at the News of the World were set Saturday to extend their probe into claims that computers were hacked, in a fresh threat to Rupert Murdoch's embattled empire.
The Metropolitan police said late Friday it was establishing a new team of officers to examine claims which emerged during its current phone-hacking investigation that computers may have also been illegally accessed.
The move heaped further pressure on Murdoch's embattled News Corp. conglomerate the same day an investigator at the heart of the controversy said he acted on orders from News of the World (NotW), axed this month as the scandal erupted.
Private detective Glenn Mulcaire's comments are a challenge to claims by Murdoch's empire that he was a rogue operator.
Meanwhile a parliamentary committee said it had ordered Murdoch's son and heir apparent James to give written clarification of answers he gave on the scandal last week.
Murdoch has been struggling for weeks to stem the spiralling scandal, which has dragged in police and politicians and spread to the United States and Australia.
But there was little sign Saturday that the crisis was about to die down, with police laying the ground to start probing allegations of computer hacking.
An inquiry, Operation Tuleta, was "currently considering a number of allegations regarding breach of privacy... including computer hacking" that were not covered by the current phone-hacking probe, Scotland Yard said in a statement.
A team was being established to look into the claims and "some aspects of this operation will move forward to a formal investigation," said the statement.
The police have faced fierce criticism over their failure to properly investigate hacking allegations during an initial probe in 2006.
That investigation led to the jailing of the NotW's royal editor and Mulcaire in 2007 but despite mounting evidence that hacking was more widespread than the paper originally claimed, the police only revived the probe this year.
Two top officers have been forced to resign over the scandal along with several top Murdoch aides.
Elsewhere, Mulcaire's intervention focused attention back on the issue of how much key figures at News Corp. knew about hacking.
In a statement issued by his lawyers, Mulcaire expressed "sincere regret" but he added that he was "effectively employed" by the paper from 2002.
"Any suggestion that he acted in such matters unilaterally is untrue," the statement said.
He spoke a day after the mother of a murdered eight-year-old girl said police had confirmed her details were found among his papers. Claims that he hacked the phone of a murdered 13-year-old ignited the scandal earlier this month.
Rebekah Brooks, editor of the News of the World from 2000-2003, and her successor until 2007, Andy Coulson, have both denied authorising any phone hacking or knowing that the practice was being used by their staff.
Brooks and Coulson, who went on to become Prime Minister David Cameron's media chief until January this year, have since been arrested.
James and Rupert Murdoch, along with Brooks, who quit as chief executive of News Corp.'s British newspaper wing News International earlier this month, answered questions from parliament's media committee on July 19.
Committee chairman John Whittingdale said Friday that he would be writing to James Murdoch about his testimony to the committee and that "the chances are" he would be recalled to clarify his evidence.
Ex-NotW editor Colin Myler and legal manager Tom Crone last week said James Murdoch gave misleading evidence about how much he knew about the extent of hacking at the paper when he authorised a payout to a victim in 2008.
It was at that hearing that the 80-year-old Rupert Murdoch was hit in the face with a plateful of shaving foam by comedian Jonathan May-Bowles.
May-Bowles, 26, whose stage name is Jonnie Marbles, pleaded guilty Friday at City of Westminster Magistrates Court to assault and to causing harassment, alarm or distress. A judge told him he faces jail when sentenced on Tuesday.
James Murdoch has also faced calls to quit his chairmanship of pay-TV giant BSkyB. But his position was strengthened Friday when the company posted bumper operating profits of £1.073 billion in the 12 months to June, up 23 percent on the previous year.
The Times meanwhile reported Saturday that Prince William expressed disappointment to James Murdoch and Brooks that no one from News International had apologised to him after his aides' phones were hacked several years ago.
During a lunch meeting in January at a north Wales hotel, Murdoch and Brooks reportedly offered their apologies to him.