Newspaper ‘blagged’ Ferguson’s medical records

The News of the World obtained Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson's medical records, a former reporter at the paper told the Leveson inquiry.

Matt Driscoll claimed on Monday that "blagging", or impersonating a third party, was used to secure the confidential information after receiving at tip that Ferguson might be suffering from ill health, reports The Guardian.

"It was clear that something might be up," Driscoll said, "but then I just couldn't get any further forward on it. I had to go to my sports desk and say 'I really don't think we can get any further forward with this.'"

The reporter added: "My sports editor said 'Leave it with me, I can see what we can come up with.' That same day I got a call from the sports editor: 'You're absolutely right, the story is true, I've got his medical records with me at the moment.'"

The former journalist added: "I was told that sometimes you'd get a situation where if an investigator sent a fax to a GP or a hospital saying 'I'm his specialist, I need these details' it was incredible how often that would just get sent straight back."

He said the paper had agreed not to run a story. "It was put to Alex Ferguson that we wouldn't use this information and in the end it was mentioned to him that [we'd] keep it quiet and out of the public domain and because of that he then started co-operating with the paper … a few weeks later he gave us some stories to use in the paper."

Driscoll emphasised he did not believe it was the sports editor who had "blagged" the information. He said "there were specialist people at the News of the World who did that sort of stuff".

He added: "Information is a tradeable commodity. [It enables the paper] to say 'we've got information, we won't use it as long as you co-operate', which is the kind of deal that was being done there".

Driscoll was signed off work with stress-related depression in July 2006 and dismissed in April 2007.

He was awarded just under £800,000, following the December 2008 ruling, which included an amount towards his legal costs, after the employment tribunal found there was a culture of bullying at the News of the World.

United said Ferguson is aware of what was said at the Leveson inquiry but has no comment to make on it.

"We are not saying anything," said a spokeswoman.