The perfect crime story? How a tabloid foiled bizarre Beckham kidnap plot

When David Beckham, the Manchester United and England captain, walked off the Old Trafford pitch celebrating another three points on Saturday, neither he nor the 67,691 supporters present had the slightest notion that his family's life had been in danger.

But yesterday, he was reviewing the security at his Hertfordshire mansion after learning that his wife, the pop star Victoria Beckham, and their two children, Brooklyn and Romeo, had been the subject of an audacious kidnap plot. Nine people were being questioned at London police stations yesterday after armed officers from the Metropolitan Police's specialist firearms unit, SO19, made raids across London on Saturday and early yesterday morning.

The raids, which began at 12.35pm on Saturday but were kept a secret from Mr Beckham until after United's 2-1 victory over Southampton, followed a tip-off from the News of the World, which said it had infiltrated a Romanian and Albanian organised crime gang. It said the gang planned to ambush Mrs Beckham in her car and sedate her with a chemical spray. The gang allegedly intended to take her ­ and possibly the children ­ to a "safe house" in south London before demanding a ransom of £5m.

Mr Beckham issued a statement yesterday, in which he praised the actions of the police in preventing the plot. It also said: "The first role of a father and husband is to keep his family safe. Because of this incident, we will be reviewing our security arrangements again with help from both the police and the security experts at Manchester United."

At the Wapping headquarters of the News of the World, the newspaper's executives were celebrating the episode as another triumph for their investigations editor, Mazher Mahmood. Often referred to as "the fake sheikh" because of his love of an Arab disguise, Mahmood is an undercover specialist who boasts of securing 119 convictions and exposing the indiscretions of, among others, the Countess of Wessex and the bosses of Newcastle United Football Club.

As a tabloid story, the Beckham kidnap had the lot. Not only had Mahmood and his team put a gang of dangerous crooks behind bars but they had saved Britain's favourite celebrity family in the process.

The News of the World even quoted Detective Inspector Ian Horrocks, of Scotland Yard's kidnap and specialist investigations unit, apparently rapturous in his praise of the newspaper's achievement.

"You've done a fantastic job and taken on dangerous criminals," said the officer. "We're extremely grateful for your information."

The paper's rivals, faced with dramatic pictures of police firearms officers making arrests and Scotland Yard's confirmation of the operation, had no choice but to follow up the scoop. But in doing so, they searched for the catch in what appeared to be the perfect story.

For a newspaper to be so closely involved in a police firearms operation, with cameras present to record the event from a vantage position, is highly unusual.

Officers are usually reluctant to be drawn into newspaper "investigations". Their resentment of journalists treading on police territory by acting in a quasi-law enforcement role is compounded by the knowledge that a newspaper's "evidence" may not be precise enough to satisfy a court. Furthermore, that evidence may be contaminated by suggestions of intentional or unintentional entrapment.

In this instance, one of the undercover reporters infiltrated the gang by presenting himself as an accomplished getaway driver and offering to work in that capacity.

The sub-plot of the kidnap story also raises questions. The gang's immediate concern seems to have been not so much the kidnap but to offload a hoard of antiques, allegedly stolen from Sotheby's auction house in London. The antiques reportedly included an Arabian crown, valued at £250,000, and a 17th-century painting by a Dutch master. The newspaper suggested that the theft had been an "inside job" involving a contact of the gang's who worked for the auctioneers.

Saturday's first arrests came as members of the gang, including an undercover Mahmood, were negotiating the sale of the crown.

In news terms, the Sotheby's story was not a bad one. But it paled into significance alongside the planned kidnapping of "Posh Spice" and her two sons.

According to the News of the World account, one Albanian member of the gang had specifically outlined the plan to ambush Mrs Beckham as she drove out of her home. He said: "We take her to a safe house in Brixton and wait until the money is transferred to our overseas account."

But was this just an idle boast, which translated to great copy about Britain's favourite celebrity couple?

The paper was at pains to stress that "it was the sheer level of detail, forward planning, surveillance, recruitment and funding for the project that set this plot apart from the usual loose criminal-fraternity talk of kidnapping a celebrity". Yet the paper shared very little of this detail with its readers and an account of a meeting of the kidnappers, less than a week ago, read exactly like the "loose talk" of amateurs.

Although apparently only weeks away from pulling off its meticulously planned crime, the gang engaged in guesses as to how much David Beckham would pay for the return of his wife. One apparently said: "I will ask Beckham for £5m. For him, that's like spending a few pence on a cup of coffee." Then another reportedly argued that £5m was too much and that the gang should ask for £1m ­ "they'll pay immediately". The first gang member replied: "You think I'm going to risk prison for £1m? For £1m, you can take me, and my brother will pay that to get me back."

Although the ransom fee appears to have been a source of confusion, the undercover reporter was offered £15,000 to drive the getaway car.

The nine-strong gang, who became known to the newspaper about six weeks ago, reportedly had the Beckhams' home under watch for a month, using a 19-year-old "surveillance expert".

Whether the gang had the capability of kidnapping the Beckhams is not clear.

Mrs Beckham was given "full details" of the plot by the newspaper not long before United's game kicked off on Saturday.

Private security specialists were seen yesterday evaluating the systems and procedures at the Beckhams' Georgian-style mansion, which is set in 24 acres and is already guarded by CCTV cameras and 24-hour guards. In the past, prowling journalists have been seen as a threat to those security arrangements; the Beckhams took out a court order to ban one Sunday newspaper from publishing pictures of their property, after claiming the images would jeopardise their security by identifying it so easily.

Yesterday, Mrs Beckham apparently thought differently of the press. "I'm incredibly grateful to the News of the World and to Mazher for everything you've done here. You've clearly had the best interests of my family at heart and we appreciate it very much," quoted the paper.

Scotland Yard, which deployed its specialist kidnap unit SO7 to oversee the case, said yesterday that seven men and two women were being held on suspicion of "having been involved in theft and a conspiracy to commit kidnap".

Last night police said five men had been charged variously with theft and conspiracy to rob and would appear in court today before being released on police bail until 18 November. "The inquiries into the alleged conspiracy to kidnap continue," a spokesman added.

Of the other four, one woman has been released without charge while another woman and two men are on police bail pending inquiries unconnected to the alleged theft and kidnap matters.

The head of the kidnap unit, Detective Chief Superintendent John Coles, said: "We are very grateful to the News of the World for their actions in this case which have assisted in the recovery of a number of valuable items and in preventing any other offences from being committed."