Designer accepts £60,000 phone hacking settlement

Interior designer Kelly Hoppen has accepted £60,000 in settlement of her High Court action over the News of the World phone hacking scandal.

The announcement was made at a hearing in London yesterday.

Her lawyer Mark Thomson told Mr Justice Vos that her action was for “misuse of private information and breach of confidence”.

He said two defendants – News International Supply Company Limited and News Group Newspapers – “have agreed to pay £60,000 to the claimant as damages as well as her costs, to be assessed if not agreed”.

Mr Thomson said that in 2004 and 2006 Ms Hoppen “was the subject of numerous articles published in the News of the World, which contained intrusive and private information”.

He added: “The claimant did not know the source of this information at the time of publication and often could not understand how it was possible for the News of the World to obtain such private information.

“In 2009, her solicitors, Atkins Thomson, wrote to the Metropolitan Police Service asking whether they had any evidence that the claimant had been targeted by News Group Newspapers Limited in 2004-2006.

“In February 2011, they informed her that they had discovered evidence that she had in fact been a target.”