But the Labour MP Tom Watson told the prime minister on Wednesday the head of the Operation Weeting inquiry into the News of the World's investigator, Glenn Mulcaire, had told him that it may be beyond its terms of reference to investigate this evidence. In 1999, he was arrested and sentenced to seven years for conspiring to plant cocaine on a woman so that her husband would get custody of their children. After his release in May 2004, the News of the World continued to hire him under the editorship of Andy Coulson, who went on to become David Cameron's media adviser.  Kate Middleton 's account was accessed in 2005, when she was the girlfriend of Prince William , by Jonathan Rees, a private investigator who once worked for the News of the World, it was alleged. “These allegations are currently being considered.” 
 
 A spokesman for News International, the News of the World’s parent company, said: “It is well documented that Jonathan Rees and Southern Investigations worked for a whole variety of newspaper groups. “With regards to Tom Watson’s specific allegations, we believe these are wholly inaccurate. The Met police, with whom we are co-operating fully in Operation Weeting, have not asked us for any information regarding Jonathan Rees. We note again that Tom Watson MP made these allegations under parliamentary privilege." Scotland Yard is believed to have collected hundreds of thousands of documents during a series of investigations into Rees over his links with corrupt officers, and over the 1987 murder of his former business partner, Daniel Morgan. It is in the following year that Mr Rees is alleged to have accessed the Duchess of Cambridge’s bank account details. Other high-profile individuals said to have been targets for Mr Rees, who was cleared of murder earlier this year, include Tony Blair, Jack Straw, the Duke and Duchess of Kent and John Yates, the Metropolitan Police assistant commissioner who once headed the phone hacking inquiry. It is understood that the reason the allegations fall outside the scope of the investigation, codenamed Operation Weeting, is because they do not relate to phone hacking, but other forms of illegal intrusion. On Wednesday, A police spokesman said: "[We] can confirm that since January 2011 the MPS [Metropolitan police service] has received a number of allegations regarding breach of privacy which fall outside the remit of Operation Weeting.
– The News of the World hacking scandal just got even more royal: Kate Middleton was a victim. But it was her bank account, not her phone, that was hacked, so the incident falls outside Operation Weeting, Scotland Yard’s phone hacking investigation. Middleton’s account was allegedly accessed in 2005 by Jonathan Rees, a private detective who had worked for Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World tabloid, the Telegraph reports. Rees also targeted Tony Blair and other high-profile victims, a member of parliament told the House of Commons yesterday. The MP wants the phone hacking inquiry expanded, and the Metropolitan Police force is considering investigating the new allegations. Rees was hired by NOTW first in the 1990s and again in 2004, after serving prison time for a drug conspiracy charge, but the tabloid’s parent company notes that Rees worked for a number of other newspapers as well. Click for much more on Rees’s alleged crimes in the Guardian.