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Named and shamed: Why release of Soca's rogue private investigators' client list is just the start

By Chris Boffey

September 9, 2013 | 5 min read

A reporter and a private investigator conspired to hack the telephone of Prince William and were jailed for six and four months. The ensuing fall out has seen nearly 100 high-profile arrests, the closure of the UK’s biggest selling newspaper, and Leveson report into Press standards.

Keith Vaz leads the Home Affairs Select Committee

Contrast that with the jailing of four corrupt private detectives for stealing confidential and private personal information. They were hired by lawyers, blue chip companies and celebrities to gain information on bank accounts, telephone records and even the files of Scotland Yard.

Companies or individuals who hired the detectives have not been publicly named, arrested or charged with commissioning the illegal acts, in fact, quite the opposite; The Serious and Organised Crime Agency (Soca) has gone out of its way to keep the names secret, even pressuring the powerful Home Affairs Select Committee (Hac) to sit on the list claiming there were ongoing investigations.

It has on its side Sir Christopher Graham, the Information Commissioner, who claims justice may be imperiled if people are named. He says: “We have to start from the central principle of British justice that some may not have broken any law.”

Tell that to the scores of journalists who were pulled out of their beds at 6am in front of their children, questioned for hours, bailed and up to a year later still not charged with any offence.

Was justice undermined when they were named and shamed in the UK version of the 'perp walk'?

More than 100 detectives have been involved in Operation Weeting, the Scotland Yard inquiry into hacking and Operation Elveden, the investigation into inappropriate payments to police and public officials which was spawned by the raking over newspaper accounts and emails. One wonders how many are looking into the institutions and celebrities who commissioned the corrupt investigators.

Some names have already leaked out; X-Factor’s Simon Cowell, Lloyds of London, the accountancy firm Deloitte, Chase Manhattan Bank and a number of small law firms and to date there is nothing to suggest there were involved in wrongdoing.

Of course, the media has a vested interest in this story. It still feels raw and will do for many years about the hacking volcano that erupted to such devastating effect and is determined that there should be a level playing field.

However, this is not just a case of media spite. Large institutions may have been breaking the law and this is recognised by the MP Keith Vaz, who heads the Hac.

There are strong parallels with the hacking investigation which was originally consigned to the dustbin under the label “one rogue reporter” and later dug out to reveal much more.

Vaz wants to name everyone who commissioned the bent private investigators to blag information but there is potentially a bigger story, even bigger than media hacking and paying for information, and he knows it.

The four private eyes pleaded guilty to blagging personal information from banks and government agencies. There was no long trial, no vast amounts of evidence in open court, no questioning of the defendants and witnesses, and no scrutiny of police procedure. There may have been a collective sigh of relief all round when the guilty pleas were accepted.

For court transcripts show that Judge Andrew Campbell said at Kingston Crown Court when sentencing the men: “I make it quite clear that although there may be some evidence within the exhibits of this case of phone hacking and of using corrupt police officers to obtain details of criminal records, that is not what you have pleaded guilty to and it is not what I have to sentence you for.”

So a judge believed there was evidence of phone hacking and police corruption. These men were employed by the great and good and British institutions. Where will it lead?

Vaz is a wily operator, has been around a long time and knows how to root out the truth. The demands to reveal the names of those who commissioned the private eyes are just the start. Tomorrow Sir Christopher will appear before Hac. It’s the start of the long game. He will be asked about the hacking and the payments to police officers. MPs will smell blood, especially those with the lust for publicity, the media will pile in.

Hopefully Scotland Yard will up their investigation and those British institutions, who like journalists thought they were above the law, will get the early morning knock on the door.

Chris Boffey is a former news editor of the Observer, Sunday Telegraph and the Mirror and onetime special adviser to the Labour government

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