London 2012 - Man arrested over Spurs 'spying' claims

Tue, 08 Nov 15:35:00 2011

A 29-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of fraud after allegations that Tottenham Hotspur spied on Olympics officials during its stadium bid.

Surveillance - 0

News of the arrest came as Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC) chairwoman Baroness Ford claimed the north London football club had all 14 members of her board monitored by private investigators.

The suspect was being questioned on Tuesday afternoon as officers conducted a string of searches in Sussex, Sutton, south west London, and Westminster. Spurs denied putting officials under surveillance.

Detectives, who have been investigating the claims since August 2011 "following allegations by West Ham and the Olympic Park Legacy Company in respect of the unlawful obtaining of information", said the suspect was arrested at an address in Sussex.

He was taken into custody at a Sussex police station "where he remains", a spokesman said.

"As part of their inquiries, detectives have conducted searches at both a residential and business premises in Sussex, a second private address in Sutton, and a further business address in Westminster," police said. "An amount of material was seized during the searches."

Baroness Ford, chairman of the OPLC, which is in charge of securing a viable economic future for the home of the London 2012 Games, told the London Assembly earlier: "The thing that I have learned in the last 12 months is that there has been all kinds of behaviour. There has been legal challenges and people have stood behind it anonymously - all kinds of things have happened.

"My board were put under surveillance by Tottenham Hotspur and the chairman of Tottenham Hotspur felt confident enough to say in the Sunday Times several months ago that all 14 members of my board were put under surveillance. The Metropolitan police are now conducting an investigation into that surveillance.

"There has been all kinds of behaviour here that I could not have anticipated which, believe me, has not been pleasant in the last 12 months."

Tottenham rejected Baroness Ford's comments and issued a statement through their lawyers, which read: "The club did not undertake, instruct or engage any party to conduct surveillance on any member of the OPLC Committee and we consider the making of this baseless accusation to be wholly inappropriate and irresponsible. We totally reject the accusation in the strongest possible terms."

Fulham 1 Tottenham 3

PA Sport

Comment 42 - 61 of 61

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  1. Tottenham cant even build a new stadium in Tottenham­ they want to be able to play in the stadium as it is­ STILL BEING BUILT how safe is that for the players/fans­ taking into account the idiocy of a lot of the so­ called fans that are nothing but THUGS

    From Christopher Smith, on Wed 9 Nov 19:15
  2. Bletchley's madness doing it again

    From Phil, on Wed 9 Nov 18:24
  3. Typical Totscum behaviour, so desperate to stop WHUFC­ having the Olympic Stadium when in fact most of our­ fans don't want us to move there anyway you stupid­ chumps! Meanwhile you bunch of pikeys are probably­ jealous of Arsenal as they nearly always outdo you and­ are secondary in North London you think changing over­ to East London is going to boost your fortunes? Hardly!

    From Peter Perfect, on Wed 9 Nov 18:16
  4. Poor old Spurs - so desperate to outdo West Ham they­ had to stoop so low! They dont even want the stadium­ anyway - they just didn't want West Ham having­ something they couldn't! How sad is that!

    From rog.sargent, on Wed 9 Nov 16:02
  5. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    I expect that scummer alan sugar is behind this, well­ known pervert should be in jail.

    From dave, on Wed 9 Nov 15:57
  6. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    jesus is lord , in fact , you can refuse him today to­ be your lord , but surely you cannot prevent him from­ becoming your judge tomorrow , think about it and make­ the wisest decision now . come to jesus and your life­ will not be the same . you can't save yourself ,­ only jesus can save and set you free . come to jesus­ today , tomorrow can not be yours .god bless and stay­ blessed .

    From Rev.benjamin, on Wed 9 Nov 14:42
  7. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    CONFRONTING YOUR LIMITATIONS : A LIMITATION IS AN ACT­ OF LIMITING OR RESTRICTING AN ACTIVITY OR A PERSON , IT­ COULD ALSO BE DEFINED AS A SHORT COMING . e g : BLOCK ,­ IMPEDIMENT , WEAKNESS AND DISADVANTAGE .WHAT IS HOLDING­ YOU DOWN OR BACK , BLOCKING , IMPEDING YOU FROM MOVING­ ON IN LIFE TO DO WHAT YOU REALLY LOVE TO DO ? DO YOU­ HAVE ANYTHING IN YOUR LIFE THAT YOU CONSIDER A WEAKNESS­ , A DISADVANTAGE , BLOCKING OR IMPEDING ? A SHORT POEM­ BY EDWARD EVERETT HALE , AN AMERICA AUTHOR , IT READS :­ I AM ONLY ONE , BUT STILL I AM ONE . I CAN NOT DO­ EVERYTHING , BUT STILL I CAN DO SOMETHING , AND BECAUSE­ I CAN NOT DO THE SOMETHING THAT I CAN DO . THERE ARE­ THREE STEPS YOU CAN FOLLOW TO CONFRONT YOUR LIMITATIONS­ : (1) RECOGNIZE YOU ARE NOT ALONE (2) ACKNOWLEDGE YOU­ HAVE GREATNESS IN YOU . (3) BELIEVE IN GOD'S GRACE­ AND CALL ON HIM .(4) DECLARE WHAT YOU EXPECT NOT WHAT­ YOU SEE .

    From Rev.benjamin, on Wed 9 Nov 14:17
  8. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    all the arsenal fans moaning... scared little kids...­ be lucky you don't get relegated this year­ chumps...

    From what a stupid hat!, on Wed 9 Nov 11:11
  9. @46 ebenwolfe well done for talking common­ sense,instead of the usual drivel that gets posted on­ here.

    From Stephen, on Wed 9 Nov 9:52
  10. p_brindley is a 2 bob n,once.

    From bill, on Wed 9 Nov 9:00
  11. @S: If you use your ONE brain cell, you will find that­ North London has belonged to Arsenal since 1971. FOYS.

    From bill, on Wed 9 Nov 8:59
  12. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    the twitcher probably has a camera outside karen bradys­ bedroom

    From Noel, on Wed 9 Nov 7:08
  13. with a crooked manager you would expect nothing else

    From Noel, on Wed 9 Nov 7:04
  14. spurs are doing anything they can to get the olympic­ stadium, they accused west ham of getting council­ backing yet they wanted government backing for the­ olympic stadium, then they spend millions taking the­ leagacy commision to court to stop west ham from­ getting the stadium, also spurs were also trying to­ blackmail the commission and now this, spying on them,­ it is time the fa demoted spurs for bringing the game­ under a further bad light, to allow a club like spurs­ to do what they have done is bad for the english game­ and makes a epl a laughing stock, it will show that­ clubs will be able to get away with anything, time to­ stop it before it goes to far, send spurs down 2­ divisions as a punishment.

    From Badspelling, on Wed 9 Nov 6:40
  15. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    I,m sorry but you,s all have somthing I dont have here­ and thats I dont care how gets what it all a bloody fix­ and we will being forced to pay for it out of our tax,s

    From big toby, on Wed 9 Nov 6:11
  16. to who wants to know spurs were founded before arsenal ­ i think by 3-4 years and arsenal came from woolwich­ and came to north london spurs are the pride of north­ london and always will be

    From David R, on Wed 9 Nov 5:56
  17. to who wants to know spurs were founded before arsenal ­ i think by 3-4 years and arsenal came from woolwhich

    From David R, on Wed 9 Nov 5:54
  18. All of their games and whinging aside, the board at­ Tottenham would only have a point if the stadium were­ actually built in Tottenham. Since it is being built on­ a patch of East London where three football teams -­ West Ham, Leyton Orient and Rainham, already exist and­ therefore have a territorial claim because of their­ geography, supporters and history, any point Levy an co­ try to make - even now they have lost any moral­ authority they might have claimed to have - is moot.­ This is especially true since there is the welfare of­ athletics to consider, given that they need the stadium­ and Spurs want to rip up the track, knock down the­ stadium and start again excluding athletics into the­ bargain.

    I am no fan of the porn barons at West Ham­ and Barry Hearn has always struck me as the Arthur­ Daley of the sports world, but that's not the­ fault of the supporters of these clubs who deserve not­ to have interlopers commandeering a new stadium on­ their doorstep.
    The wisest and fairest option for all­ is for the stadium to remain, for a mobile seating­ system to be used over the track, and for all three­ local clubs to share the new ground which is more than­ big enough to accommodate all of them. No one is saying­ Spurs cannot have a new stadium, but it should be built­ in or near Tottenham where their own fans hail from.

    From Ebenwolfe, on Wed 9 Nov 4:56
  19. I'm so proud, we have such quality players atm...­ COYS

    From me, on Wed 9 Nov 4:49
  20. To those Arsenal fans slating our fab home, White Hart­ Lane is a proper football stadium with great atmosphere­ and acoustics. Emirates might be state of the art but­ is dull as dishwater, I'm sure the fans have a lot­ to do with that also.

    From me, on Wed 9 Nov 4:43
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