Phoneline firm calls in police over 'maliciously fabricated' allegations

LONDON - Eckoh, the company that runs the 'I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!' premium-rate voting lines, is to consult with the police over allegations in today's Sun newspaper that it failed to include 30,000 viewer votes for David Gest, the bookies' favourite to win the last series of the ITV1 show.

The report on the front page of today's paper claims that information contained in leaked emails mean that Gest, the former husband of singing legend Liza Minnelli, had been unjustly evicted from the show, saving bookies a potential £100,000. In the end, the show was won by former Busted singer Matt Willis.

According to the report, ITV had admitted there had been problems because of a computer system failure on the night of the last eviction vote on November 30, but that all the phone votes had eventually been counted.

Eckoh said it was aware that its integrity and professional reputation has been brought into question by a series of articles in the press in the past three weeks "based on information provided by a 'source'".

In a statement, the company said: "The information that has been provided has been largely misleading, inaccurate and, more recently, completely fabricated. The company's primary concern has always been that the public are not deceived and it believes that it has a duty to defend its reputation and those of its customers."

As a result, Eckoh said it would is take legal advice in reference to the reports and would be reporting the matter to the police today.

Nik Philpot, chief executive of Eckoh, said: "We believe that the emails quoted in today's Sun newspaper have been maliciously fabricated by a source to cause maximum impact and damage. We have carried out all the necessary checks and are positive that these emails never existed.

"Eckoh and its staff have been put under intense scrutiny in recent weeks and this simply cannot continue. We are taking legal advice against those supplying false information and we will today be reporting the matter to the police."

The firm added that it regretted having to take the latest step but saw that it had no other options in an effort to bring the episode to a conclusion.

"We will not further risk our reputation which we have built up over many years of good practice, or bring the reputation of our customers into disrepute."

The revelations come as part of an ongoing scandal involving premium-rate phone lines.

Over the past few weeks, it has emerged that BBC One's 'Saturday Kitchen', Channel 4's 'Richard and Judy', ITV's 'X Factor', 'Dancing on Ice', and 'Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway' and Five's 'Brainteaser' have all been affected by irregularities in premium-rate phone voting.

'Dancing on Ice', along with fellow ITV programme, 'This Morning' have been exonerated by the broadcaster's auditor Deloitte of any wrongdoing.

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