By Duncan Mackay
November 18 – A second man has been arrested in connection with claims Tottenham Hotspur spied on officials from the Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC) during their campaign to be awarded the Olympic Stadium after London 2012.
It follows allegations in the High Court that accountants working for the Premier League club illegally obtained the telephone records of Karren Brady, the vice-chairman at West Ham United, who were Tottenham’s only rivals in the contest for the Stadium.
Judge Peter Coulson revealed Brady’s telephone records were “unlawfully obtained by subterfuge” during the dispute which saw Tottenham’s joint bid with American entertainment giants AEG overlooked in favour of West Ham’s.
Coulson alleged that accountants PKF were “engaged by Tottenham Hotspur to carry out an investigation that was in some way connected with the Olympic Stadium.”
PKF have admitted that a parnter in the firm, Howard Hill, did pass on Brady’s phone records to The Sunday Times, who conducted an investigation into the tender process.
The Sunday Times ran stories on successive weekends in early July claiming Dionne Knight, an OPLC director, received payment from West Ham during the tendering process over the Stadium.
The newspaper said that the information was detailed in “bank and telephone records”.
An independent inquiry later found that the OPLC’s decision to select West Ham’s bid was not compromised.
“In correspondence from PKF it was finally admitted that Howard Hill and two of his colleagues handed copies of Ms Brady’s telephone records to The Sunday Times, but he has not said where he got them from,” said Judge Coulson.
“At the height of the dispute over the Olympic Stadium Ms Brady’s telephone records were unlawfully obtained by subterfuge.
“PKF were engaged by Tottenham to carry out investigation in some way relating to the Olympic Stadium, the precise terms of the investigation have not been made clear.
“PKF has in the last few days accepted that they do have copies of the unlawfully obtained telephone records.”
But Counsel for PKF, Ruth Den Besten, said the company did not accept responsibility for accessing the records.
“Neither PKF or Howard Hill sought or obtained any bank or telephone records and have not committed any offence or engaged sub-agents to carry out investigation of Ms Brady,” she said.
Matthew Nicklin, QC for Tottenham, has also denied that Tottenham had received any copies of Brady’s telephone records until they were informed of the proceedings West Ham were bringing against PKF.
West Ham want PKF to reveal the identity of the person who obtained Brady’s records.
OPLC chair Baroness Margaret Ford told the London Assembly’s Economy, Culture and Sport Committee last week accused Tottenham of putting all 14 members of her Board “under surveillance” during the campaign.
A few hours later, police announced they had arrested an unidentified 29-year-old man on suspicion of fraud in relation to the illegal procurement of information.
Now the Metropolitan Police said a 39-year-old man was arrested “on suspicion of fraud offences” but released on police bail.
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