BT is investigating allegations that one of its workers is at the centre of a betting scam that made thousands of pounds from TV shows such as the X Factor.

These shows - including Celebrity Fame Academy, Hell's Kitchen, and Strictly Come Dancing - involve viewers voting by phone, text or online for their favourite contestants.

The Mirror reports that a BT insider who had access to the shows' voting database fed the results to a betting syndicate before they were made public to viewers on the live TV shows. The gang then placed bets at betting exchange Betfair.com on the outcome of the voting netting a fortune.

Since the scammers - thought to be "well educated" men - already knew the result, their bets were a dead cert and raked in some £105,000 from the betting scams. However, staff at Betfair became suspicious and called in police.

One "friend of the mob" told the paper: "The guys knew they could not lose. It is corrupt. At first it was small amounts but they were caught out when they got greedier."

A spokesman for BT told us: "We have launched an urgent investigation into the allegations in today's Daily Mirror, but we cannot say more at this stage.

"However, one thing we would like to make clear is that this does not affect the integrity of the result. It is impossible to tamper with the results to affect the outcome in anyway - the viewers? choice will win.? ®