Trio on Olympics Park fraud charges

Three people have been charged with fraud over allegations that Tottenham Hotspur Football Club spied on Olympic officials during its stadium bid.

Detectives have been investigating claims made by West Ham and the Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC).

OPLC chairwoman Baroness Ford claimed last November that Spurs had all 14 members of her board monitored by private investigators. The north London club denied putting officials under surveillance.

Last year the High Court was told that accountancy firm PKF was instructed by Spurs to carry out an investigation linked to the bid.

Howard Hill, 58, from Stockport in Greater Manchester, has been charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation - one with Richard Michael Forrest, 30, and the other with Lee Stewart, 39. Forrest, from Crawley, West Sussex, and Stewart, from Esher in Surrey, are both accused of conspiracy with Hill to commit fraud by false representation.

They will all appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on November 28.

There was a deal with West Ham and Newham Council to use the stadium in Stratford, east London, after the 2012 Games, but that collapsed in October last year.

Tottenham lost out to West Ham in the race to become the OPLC's first choice to move into the stadium after the Olympics.

Challenges by Tottenham and Leyton Orient, plus an anonymous complaint to the European Commission, led to fears that court action could drag on for years while the stadium remained empty.

Hill is a former employee of PKF. Neither the OPLC nor Spurs were willing to comment while legal proceedings are ongoing.