Teacher held in probe over stolen exams

An investigation into the theft of a GCSE exam paper is today focusing on a Croydon teacher as it emerged that more than one paper may have been stolen.

Police swooped on the private Head Start crammer school in Motspur Park on Monday evening.

A married couple, both in their forties, were arrested and released on bail. The woman is understood to be a teacher at a Croydon secondary school.

Today it emerged that the planning of the police operation began nearly a week ago when exam board Edexcel - under fire over a series of exams blunders this year - alerted detectives.

The board was approached late last month by a teacher at a south London school after a pupil who attended the crammer, which offers revision classes, said questions in a maths GCSE "seemed familiar".

Edexcel immediately raised their concern with police. A spokesman for the board acknowledged today that it was possible that more than one paper may have been stolen.

"This earlier concern raised by a teacher was what alerted us and what we passed on to the police," the spokesman said. "The police then agreed a strategy which culminated in Monday's arrests."

The couple arrested were questioned and released on bail to return to Wimbledon police station in July.

Edexcel said its examiners would now be looking carefully at papers sat by pupils known to have attended the tutorial college, and others in their schools. Senior examiners would mark their exams and compare them with past performances.

Edexcel said it was checking to see whether any other test papers had been compromised. Exam papers are sent to schools and colleges in sealed packets and are supposed to be kept in a locked safe until the day of the test.

Edexcel chief executive John Kerr said tough action was essential to maintain the credibility of exams. "Those who seek to cheat the system cannot be allowed to win," he said. "The examinations system runs on trust. When anyone breaches that trust it is crucial that they are exposed in order to maintain the integrity of the system."

Last year Edexcel was embarrassed when a copy of an A-level maths paper was sold. A Scotland Yard investigation found the paper available in London on the black market for £400.

Liberal Democrat education spokesman Phil Willis said the latest incident raised fresh questions about the exam board's future. "The secretary of state can no longer turn a blind eye to a company that is making our exams system look like a Whitehall farce," he said.