(adds background, clarifies Wasps statement)
LONDON, April 5 (Reuters) – The millionaire owner of London
Wasps rugby club, Steve Hayes, has been arrested by police
investigating computer hacking, the club said on Thursday.
The arrest of Hayes, 50, was carried out as part of
Operation Tuleta, a strand of London police’s investigation into
illegal information-gathering which has so far only involved
newspapers.
“I can confirm he was arrested in connection with computer
hacking,” said a Wasps spokeswoman. She declined to comment
further because of the continuing police investigation.
Hayes was seized in a dawn raid at his farm in
Hertfordshire, north of London, according to the London Evening
Standard newspaper. Another man was held in Surrey at the same
time.
A Scotland Yard statement said: “On 24 February 2012,
officers from Operation Tuleta arrested a man at his home in
Hertfordshire, and a man at an address in Surrey, on suspicion
of offences under the Computer Misuse Act 1990 and the
Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) 2000.
“These arrests are not directly linked to any news
organisation or the activities of journalists. They were taken
to London police stations and later bailed to return in June and
July 2012 pending further enquiries.”
Hayes bought London Wasps in 2008, the year that former
England captain Lawrence Dallaglio led the team to victory in
the Premiership final at Twickenham.
Wasps have been battling relegation this season and last
October, Hayes put the club up for sale.
Operation Tuleta is one of three investigations set up by
police probing phone-hacking at Rupert Murdoch’s defunct News of
the World tabloid and other related alleged corruption by
journalists.
More than 40 people have been arrested as part of the three
probes.
(Reporting by Steve Addison; Editing by John Mehaffey and
Alison Wildey)
