Pair quizzed by detectives investigating corrupt payments to police and public officials

Detectives investigating claims of corrupt payments to police and public officials have bailed a man and a woman who were arrested in north west London.

Officers from Operation Elveden, the Met’s specialist team probing allegations of inappropriate payments by News Corporation employees, arrested the pair at the same address yesterday morning (Tuesday).

The 50-year-old man, who works for HM Revenue and Customs, was questioned on suspicion of misconduct in a public office and suspicion of corruption.

The 43-year-old woman was quizzed on suspicion of aiding and abetting misconduct in a public office and suspicion of money laundering.

Both have been bailed to return to a police station in August.

The arrests are the result of information provided to police by News Corporation’s management standards committee (MSC) which was set up following the phone-hacking scandal on the News of the World which resulted in the Sunday newspaper being closed last year.

Operation Elveden is being supervised by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) and is being run in conjunction with Operation Weeting, which is the Met’s investigation into phone-hacking.

A police spokesman refused to specify where in north west London the pair were arrested.

The total number of people arrested as part of the operation now totals 29.