A reporter for the Daily Mirror has been arrested after he tried to get a job in Queen Elizabeth’s London residence, Buckingham Palace, the newspaper said on Wednesday.
The 25-year-old journalist was detained by officers from the Metropolitan Police’s Royal Protection Unit last Friday after background checks were made on his identity.
“He was arrested having applied for a job at Buckingham Palace after checks discovered false details in his application,” a police spokesman said.
He added the man had been held on suspicion of theft and false accounting, and had been released on police bail to an unspecified date in March.
“Our reporter was engaged in a legitimate journalistic enterprise on behalf of the Daily Mirror when he was arrested,” the paper said in a statement.
“Following the paper’s 2003 expose of the alarming failure of security surrounding the royal family, he was instructed to test the robustness of current procedures for staff recruitment by applying for a job as a member of the Household Staff.”
2nd case in a month
The reporter is the second journalist in a month to have been arrested trying to get a job at the palace.
Bethany Usher, 25, a reporter with the Sunday newspaper the News of the World, was arrested after bogus details were found on her job application.
She was trying to emulate a previous successful scoop by the Mirror when its reporter Ryan Porter got a job as a footman for two months at the palace during which he served the queen’s breakfast.
That revelation prompted the appointment of security supremo Brigadier Jeffrey Cook to improve checks on potential staff.
“We’re pleased to see that the palace has learnt the lessons of our previous investigation and since tightened its security arrangements,” the Mirror said.
However, police were less than amused.
“It takes up an enormous amount of our time dealing with these things,” a police source told Reuters. “Hopefully the papers will get bored of doing this now.”
