A Government press officer leaked Budget secrets while being paid more than £17,000 over three years by the Sun newspaper, the Old Bailey heard today.
He also sold stories about model Kelly Brook advertising a Government website, a jury was told.
The money was said to have been partly paid directly to Jonathan Hall, who was press officer for the HMRC tax service, and partly into his girlfriend’s account.
Hall was motivated by greed while girlfriend Marta Bukarewicz kept some of the money as a “reward for her participation in this unlawful agreement”, prosecutor Zoe Johnson QC said.
The information was allegedly passed to the Sun’s Whitehall editor Clodagh Hartley and was published in a series of exclusive stories, including one about then- Chancellor Alistair Darling planning a rise in petrol duty, between 2008 and 2011.
The jury has been told Hall, 53, “accepts” he supplied stories. Hartley, 40, and Bukarewicz, 45, deny conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office and the case continues.
