Sony Computer Entertainment Europe has failed to deny claims that senior employees used Hong Kong-based online games hardware retailer Lik-Sang.com to buy PSPs more than nine months before the device finally shipped over here.

In a statement, the consumer electronics giant said "the purchasing of PSP consoles by SCE employees" had been carried out "for investigatory purposes".

Lik-Sang.com yesterday closed its virtual doors to further orders, complaining that Sony's efforts to prevent it from selling PSPs to Europeans ahead of the official release date had made its future untenable. The retailer went on to name four senior SCEE staffers it alleged had used its services to import individual PSPs, in some cases as early as December 2005.

Sony denounced the act - which it described as a contravention of worldwide "data protection principles" - as "sour grapes".

No doubt it would say the same to hundreds of Lik-Sang customers and other interested parties currently venting their spleen against the Japanese giant over on the retailer's website. ®