Vodafone accused of spying

SHADES OF Patricia Dunn and the whole spying scandal at HP, with the revelation that Vodafone tried to discover who was leaking boardroom antics to the Press.

According to a report in the Mail on Sunday, former chairman Vodafone Lord MacLaurin left and former CEO, Sir Chris Gent, quit as life president after Vodafone 'spied' on its own directors.

The allegations here say the investigators stopped short of listening in on actual voice calls but built up a list of text message and voice call recipients.

Vodafone allegedly spied on its own directors during the boardroom bust-up that led to the departure of chairman Lord MacLaurin and the resignation of former chief executive Sir Chris Gent from his role as life president.

The incident is said to have taken place in early 2006 when current CEO, Arun Sarin, was at his lowest moments in shareholder relationships.

Vodafone immediately issued this statement ... "Vodafone is completely confident it never deliberately or knowingly conducted any investigation in contravention of the UK Data Protection Act or other laws."

In other words it denies any actions which might be illegal. However, it didn't deny the investigations had taken place.

Significantly the FT has carried a story here saying that Vodafone reviewed phone call records and emails while trying to identify the source of the leak that Sir John Bond was going to be appointed the new Vodafone chairman in December 2005.

The FT says that the culprit or culprits were never identified.

Last week, of course, Arun Sarin announced he was going to leave and effectively turn the reigns over to Vittorio Colao.

It looks to the INQ very much as this has triggered Sarin's internal enemies to surface with information that could tarnish his reputation. µ