Olympic ticket corruption claims probed

A probe is under way into claims of widespread corruption among foreign agents and officials supplying tickets to the London Olympics.

The International Olympic Committee is threatening a radical shake-up of the way Olympic tickets are distributed among its member countries after a Sunday Times investigation suggested officials were offering thousands of top tickets on the black market.

London Olympics chief Lord Coe was dragged into the row after the newspaper secretly filmed Greek national Olympic committee president Spyros Caprolos claiming he had successfully lobbied him for more premium Olympic tickets on Greece's behalf.

The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (Locog) has denied the claims.

The revelations have prompted senior politician Sir Menzies Campbell - a member of the Olympic Board which helps oversee London 2012 - to call for offending countries to lose future allocations of tickets. He told the BBC: "The sanctions should be not just that the tickets get cancelled for this Olympic Games but that tickets are not awarded on future occasions."

The Sunday Times newspaper has presented a dossier of evidence on agents and officials controlling the tickets for 54 countries. Thousands of the best seats at the top events - including the 100m final - were up for sale after being siphoned off from official supplies held by overseas national Olympic committees (NOCs), the newspaper said.

National Olympic committees are forbidden to sell their tickets abroad or to anyone who plans to resell them. But The Sunday Times said undercover reporters posing as envoys of a Middle Eastern ticket tout found 27 officials and agents who were willing to do business.

According to the paper, these included one country's official ticket agency which The Sunday Times claimed offered category AA tickets, the best seats in the stadiums, to the fake Middle Eastern tout for up to £6,000 each. The IOC confirmed they were investigating the allegations and will consider a complete shake-up of how Olympic tickets are distributed among member countries.

Regarding the evidence against Mr Caprolos, Locog said in a statement: "Seb received a letter from the Greek Olympic Committee (HOC), as he did from other NOCs, and responded saying that tickets had been allocated in accordance with the IOC's ticketing policy. There was no further contact - either formal or informal - on this subject."

Locog added that rules and regulations for selling London 2012 tickets to international fans were "clear and unambiguous". A spokeswoman for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport said it was awaiting the result of the IOC investigation before commenting.

©Press Association

Officer 'gave information to press'

A serving police superintendent with City of London Police has been arrested on suspicion of passing unauthorised information to a journalist.

The officer was arrested by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) on suspicion of misconduct in a public office.

He was arrested after Metropolitan Police officers investigating payments by journalists to public officials passed information to the IPCC.

In a statement, the IPCC said: "A serving officer of superintendent rank, from City of London Police, has today been arrested by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) on suspicion of misconduct in public office.

"The arrest is the result of information passed to the IPCC by the Metropolitan Police Service team investigating Operation Elveden. It relates to the alleged passing of unauthorised information to a journalist. The man is currently in custody at a London police station."

In a separate development, three people were arrested by police investigating allegations of inappropriate payments to police and public officials. A 40-year-old man and 37-year-old woman were arrested in Corby, Northamptonshire, while a 31-year-old man was arrested in Croydon, Surrey.

A News International spokeswoman confirmed that one of the three individuals arrested was a Sun journalist but declined to reveal the person's identity.

The 40-year-old, a former prison officer, was arrested on suspicion of corruption, suspicion of misconduct in a public office and suspicion of money laundering offences; the woman on suspicion of aiding and abetting misconduct in a public office and suspicion of money laundering offences; and the other man on suspicion of conspiracy to corrupt and suspicion of conspiracy to cause misconduct in a public office.

The arrests bring the number of suspects held in connection with Operation Elveden to 33. Scotland Yard said the arrests are the result of information provided by News Corporation's Management Standards Committee.

Meanwhile, the Crown Prosecution Service said a Guardian journalist who admitted phone hacking will not be prosecuted. David Leigh, the paper's investigations executive editor, admitted hacking an arms company executive's phone. But the CPS said its view was that he should not be prosecuted.

PM At Leveson Live

Cameron, Osborne, Brown and Clegg At Leveson Nex Teek

David Cameron and Chancellor George Osborne are among a list of political heavyweights due to appear before the Leveson Inquiry next week.

The Prime Minister has been called to give evidence to the probe into media ethics at the Royal Courts of Justice in London on Thursday.

Ex-PM Gordon Brown and Mr Osborne will be first up on Monday, followed by Labour leader Ed Miliband, his deputy Harriet Harman and former prime minister Sir John Major on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, Deputy Prime Minister and Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg will take the stand, as well as Alex Salmond, leader of the Scottish National Party.

Mr Cameron is likely to be questioned about his relationship with the media, News Corporation chief executive and chairman Rupert Murdoch, and his friendship with former News Of The World editor Rebekah Brooks.

The PM is also likely to be grilled over his decision to hand Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt the responsibility for overseeing News Corp's BSkyB bid.

At the last hearing on May 31 before a one-week break, Mr Hunt survived a six-hour grilling over his handling of the process .

Mr Cameron judged afterwards that the cabinet minister had acted "properly" and decided not to order an investigation into whether he had breached the ministerial code of conduct.

Mr Hunt also insisted there was no reason for him to quit, insisting he handled the bid with "scrupulous fairness" - though he admitted in his evidence that he had considered resigning.

He also suggested he regretted text messages he exchanged with senior figures from News Corp.

The inquiry also heard he sent text messages to Mr Osborne expressing his fears the Government was going to "screw up" the deal when secret recordings of Business Secretary Vince Cable "declaring war" on News Corp emerged.

Mr Cable was later stripped of his responsibilities for the media.

Yard detectives 'took payoffs'

Three police detectives face accusations of taking illegal paymentsfrom private investigators for information in an alleged case of "apparent corruption right at the heart of Scotland Yard".

A detective inspector and two detective constables were branded "key culprits" by a lawyer describing the close links between police and a private investigations firm working on the case of Nigerian fraudster James Ibori.

Mike Schwarz, a partner at Bindmans LLP, told the Home Affairs Select Committee of possible cash payments made by Risc Management Ltd to sources of theirs who were "presumably police officers or those close to the investigation".

Risc Management was hired by the law firm representing Ibori, a former governor of one of Nigeria's richest oil-producing states who was brought to justice in London. He was jailed for 13 years last month after admitting fraud totalling nearly £50 million.

Mr Schwarz, whose firm represented one of Ibori's co-accused, told MPs: "What I have seen in that case is serious illegality on behalf of private investigators Risc Management Ltd... which involves apparent corruption right at the heart of New Scotland Yard. The core as I see it is the operation of the police and their connection with the security firm involved, the police being the Proceeds of Corruption Unit within New Scotland Yard. And the problem there is the key culprits appear to be the key players who are the the senior investigating police officer... and two of the key investigators."

Together the men "topped and tailed things" in such a way that their own apparent misconduct could not be detected "because they are in control of the information coming in, the evidence coming in, and the evidence going out," he claimed.

Mr Schwarz told MPs he had seen material submitted to the committee involving invoices from Risc Management to Ibori's solicitors reporting "payments made by Risc Management to sources that they have, presumably police officers or those close to the investigation".

Records showed roughly half a dozen payments amounting to about £20,000 over an eight or nine-month period, he said. "It appears to be inappropriate if not corrupt," he added. He also indicated the information flowed in both directions, with the private investigators passing details from the defence case back to the police as well.

Scotland Yard said in a statement: "The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) is investigating an allegation that illegal payments were made to police officers for information by a private investigation agency. The Directorate of Professional Standards (DPS) referred the matter to the Independent Police Complaints Commission in October 2011 which agreed to supervise a DPS investigation into the allegations. This is an ongoing investigation and it would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage while the investigation is under way."

Risc Management declined to comment.

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