Care home undercover reporter arrested

A BBC journalist who went undercover as a carer to expose flaws in the system in the care of elderly in their own homes has been arrested, it was revealed today.

The Panorama investigation, Britain's Homecare Scandal, was aired in April this year.

Reporters worked undercover for two months caring for elderly people in their own homes and exposed a series of failings.

Arifa Farooq, 30, who works with the BBC Scotland investigations unit, was one of those who went undercover.

The journalist was arrested yesterday after voluntarily attending an interview at Maryhill police station in Glasgow.

It is understood that police received a complaint about her securing employment using a false identity with the Clydebank-based Domiciliary Care (Scotland) company.

A source said she was held in the cells for around an hour before being released.

A Strathclyde Police spokesman said: "We can confirm that a woman was arrested yesterday in connection with a contravention of Section 123 of the Police Act 1997.

"She was not detained and a report will be sent to the procurator fiscal."

Miss Farooq was initially interviewed by Maryhill CID at BBC Scotland headquarters in Pacific Quay last week.

She attended a further interview yesterday where she was arrested.

BBC Scotland head of news Atholl Duncan said: "This was an extremely important piece of journalism which highlighted widespread mistreatment of elderly people.

"We are very concerned about the action taken against Arifa and its consequences for the freedom of investigative journalism. We now await consideration of the matter by the fiscal."

The programme found carers on minimum wages, often with very little training, frequently frustrated by poor management.

They uncovered evidence of missed and curtailed visits, failure to keep proper care plans, including inaccurate records of what medicines should be taken, and untrained staff using equipment such as hoists.

Before going undercover Miss Farooq was trained by a team from Age Concern Training.

Over several days, they taught her everything she needed to meet and exceed the national minimum standards for new carers.