No fraud probe into UK TV phone-in scandals

The British Serious Fraud Office (SFO) said today it would not carry out an inquiry into the TV phone-in scandals which recently rocked the entertainment sector in the UK.

The SFO had considered allegations over phone-in programmes and competitions, including shows like 'Eurovision: Making Your Mind Up'.

The SFO also looked into ITV programmes and competitions involving the use of premium rate services.

But a statement from the SFO said today: “After full and careful consideration the director considers that none of these meet the SFO criterion for acceptance for investigation.”

The SFO was also asked to look at Opera Telecom Ltd, the telecommunications operator contracted by GMTV Ltd to manage competition entry systems, as well as Big Game TV Ltd.

It decided not to investigate the cases of Big Game TV and GMTV in February.

In making its decision not to investigate, the SFO considered the programmes looked into by Ofcom in its Broadcast Bulletin and Adjudications on May 8.

In May, Ant and Dec handed back an award and ITV were hit with a record £5.67m (€7.1m) fine after details of a massive TV phone-in scam were made public.

The report into 2005’s British Comedy Awards revealed that organisers promised pop star Robbie Williams he could present Ant and Dec with an award if he appeared.

The report also said the actual winner should have been The Catherine Tate Show.

There was no suggestion that Williams or Ant and Dec were aware of “any of these issues”.

Ofcom slapped a record penalty on ITV for a spate of premium rate phone-in scandals concerning Ant And Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway, Ant And Dec’s Gameshow Marathon, and Soapstar Superstar.

Ofcom accused the broadcaster of “institutional failure” and said the fine reflected “not only the seriousness of ITV’s failures but also their repeated nature”.

The penalty dwarfed the previous record of £2m (€2.5m) against GMTV.

City firm Deloitte was called in by ITV to carry out an audit of its programmes and its findings were the subject of Ofcom’s investigation.

It found that in 'Saturday Night Takeaway', competition entrants for the Jiggy Bank competition were not chosen at random but selected if they lived within an hour of a chosen location and would make good TV.

In 'Soapstar Superstar', votes for celebrities to be put up for eviction were ignored in favour of the production team’s choice.

ITV1’s I'’m A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!', 'People’s Court' and 'ITV Play' were also found to have breached the broadcasting codes, but no financial sanction was imposed for these transgressions.

In May, the BBC said it failed to pay £106,000 (€134,000) to charity from phone votes in more than 20 programmes.

In the case of 'Eurovision: Making Your Mind Up 2007', a presenter mistakenly told viewers to vote when phone lines had not yet opened.

Other programmes related to Audiocall, part of BBC Worldwide, retaining money raised from premium rate calls made by the audience who were mistakenly voting despite lines being closed.