Police investigate email hacking complaint from Yes Scotland campaigners

Campaigners say that emails were accessed from an outside computer

Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond is campaigning for Scotland to leave the UK in a referendum to be held in 2014

Scottish police are investigating complaints from the pro-independence campaign group Yes Scotland that their emails were hacked.

Yes Scotland was advised by police to contact BT after it received a media inquiry last week that appeared to be based on private correspondence within the organisation.

The Daily Telegraph reports that BT found evidence that the email account of a member of staff had been accessed “a number of times”.

The campaign was asked by a journalist about information that could have only come from an email understood to have been sent last month, according to the paper.

A source told the paper that the email account was accessed from a computer whose IP address, revealing its location, was unrelated to Yes Scotland.

A spokesman for the independence group said, “We can confirm that a complaint has been made to Police Scotland regarding unauthorised access to Yes Scotland email.”

The campaigners are not reportedly making an accusation against any particular person or group, and do not believe any ex-employees are involved.

An unnamed source, speaking to the paper, raised the possibility that the emails were shown to the media in an effort to damage the pro-independence campaign, and was also possibly an attempt to make money.

A Police Scotland spokeswoman said, “A complaint has been made by Yes Scotland regarding unauthorised access to an email account. The matter is being looked into.”