Piers Morgan authorised illegal blagging of prince’s bank details, court told

Mirror hired investigators to pose as Prince Michael of Kent’s accountant, phone-hacking trial hears

Piers Morgan authorised the illegal blagging of a prince’s private bank details when he was editor of the Daily Mirror, it has been alleged at the high court.

Prince Michael of Kent’s personal financial records were published by the Mirror in 1999, allegedly revealing that Queen Elizabeth II’s cousin was millions of pounds in debt and had an unauthorised £220,000 overdraft at Coutts bank.

Morgan “lies at the heart” of allegations of unlawful information-gathering, including phone hacking, under the Mirror’s parent company and was “directly” involved in illegal behaviour.

The journalist who helped obtain Prince Michael of Kent’s financial records was Gary Jones, now the editor of the Daily Express.

The Mirror regularly used the services of Southern Investigations, a private investigations agency heavily implicated in police corruption and the murder of a former employee, Daniel Morgan.

Phone hacking was so widespread at the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and People that even those newspapers’ editors were illegally accessing voicemails.