Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile speak up on hacking case

THE RED TOP PHONE HACKING scandal continues to pull parties into its wake and now, according to a report on the BBC, has drawn in the mobile phone firms Vodafone and Everything Everywhere, or if you prefer, Orange and T-Mobile.

The firms, reports the BBC, did not contact any alleged victims with warnings that their phones and voicemails had been broken into, because the police asked them not to.

The revelation came during interviews in front of the Home Affairs Select Committee. The BBC reports that representatives from the firms were bought in front of the committee to discuss what happened, and perhaps more likely, what went wrong.

This lack of help or advice from the police continued when the case was re-opened in January of this year, the BBC adds, when the police refused to give any guidance to the mobile operators.

"We worked closely with the Metropolitan Police and, as in all cases, so as not to jeopardise the police inquiry, we did not contact our customers directly," said Julie Steele, the head of fraud prevention at Vodafone during her chat with MPs. Steele added that she had "No recollection" of the police giving her firm the go-ahead to tell customers, explained the BBC.

"We would never contact customers as part of a police investigation," added James Blendis, Everything Everywhere's VP of legal affairs, in response to similar questioning. "Our understanding is that there is a serious risk of prejudicing an investigation if we take an action like that." µ