Vodafone UK has published a statement in response to what it describes as employee ‘bribery’ allegations.
It reads “Vodafone UK launched a thorough investigation at the time of the original allegations against journalists in 2006 and did not find that any employees were involved in any wrongdoing. We have subsequently seen no evidence to the contrary but if further evidence were to come to light, we would investigate immediately. Following the first reports of phone hacking in 2006 by or on behalf of journalists, we put in place additional measures to protect our customers' privacy specifically designed to prevent the kind of unlawful intrusions that may have been committed by others in the past. We are confident that our voicemail system is extremely secure.”
Journalist Clive Goodman, who worked for the News of the World newspaper, and a private investigator called Glenn Mulcaire were arrested in 2006 for intercepting voicemail messages that had been left for members of the royal household. Both were jailed in 2007. Voicemail security has been improved since the original ‘hacking’ incidents.