BT has admitted that "illicit access" into the telephone network has led to residents in the Braintree area getting charged for expensive calls they did not make.

More than 20 residents in the tiny village of Bardfield Saling first complained last month they were being wrongly charged for premium rate calls, adding more than £1,000 to their bills.

But after the story broke, other people from the Braintree area came forward with similar complaints.

The town's MP Alan Hurst took up their case and was promised a high-level investigation.

BT would give no details of how someone could have hacked into the system. A spokeswoman said the probe is still being carried out.

A statement yesterday said: ''An investigation by BT Security has shown that a number of customers in the East Anglian area have been affected by illicit access to the BT network.

"This has resulted in some customers receiving bills with unrecognised calls listed. The investigation has shown that the calls in question were not made from within the customers' homes and we are in the process of refunding the customers who have been affected."

Stephanie Woodcraft of Bardfield Saling, one of the residents hit by inflated bills, said she and her husband Stephen had now received a letter admitting there had been a problem, apologising and saying they would get a refund.

They were charged for £113 worth of premium rate calls. Among the late-night calls to 09090 or 09096 numbers wrongly charged to the residents at £1.25 a minute were ones to chat lines, including gay porn and the latest information on the BBC soap Neighbours.

Mrs Woodcraft said: ''We feel we are being fobbed off. We want to know what happened and whether it could recur."

Published Thursday June 17, 2004

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