Watchdog fines BBC £400,000 for phone rigging

The BBC was today fined £400,000 - a record for the corporation - by the media watchdog for faking winners and deliberately cheating the public during phone-in competitions.

In a damning verdict, the regulatory body Ofcom said viewers and listeners had been misled during eight different shows by " serious" breaches of broadcasting rules.

Ofcom emphasised that the BBC did not receive any money from the scams but viewers and listeners were still liable for the cost of their calls to take part in the competitions.

It said some programmes had made up the names of winners, while others had gone ahead with phone-ins despite knowing in advance that the audience had no chance of winning.

The biggest individual fine - of £115,000 - was given to the Liz Kershaw Show on BBC6 Music for faking winners on two listener competitions (Ruff Riff and Listening Post) up to 17 times. Other offending programmes included Comic Relief, Children In Need and Sports Relief.

Announcing today's fine, Ofcom said: "The BBC deceived its audience by faking winners of competitions and deliberately conducting competitions unfairly.

"The investigations found that, in some cases, the production team had taken premeditated decisions to broadcast competitions and encourage listeners to enter in the full knowledge that the audience stood no chance of winning."

The watchdog - which last year fined the BBC £50,000 for a similar phone-in scam involving Blue Peter - said examples of the way viewers had been cheated included a competition on Children In Need in 2005 when a fictitious winner was read out on air and a competition on Comic Relief on BBC1 in March last year when a member of the production team posed as a winner of a phone-in.

In the Russell Brand show on BBC 6 Music, a member of staff posed as a competition winner during an edition-that was billed as live when itwas actually pre-recorded so that listeners who called or texted to take part had no chance of winning.

The Jo Whiley show on Radio 1 faked a competition winner twice and received the second-largest fine of £75,000.

The BBC Trust, which holds the corporation to account, said: "Our concern now is ensuring that the highest editorial standards are maintained."

BBC management issued a separate statement, saying: "We have taken these issues extremely seriously, apologising to our audiences and putting in place an unprecedented action plan to tackle the issues raised."