Spoof BBC website removed, after Managing IP interview

Andrew Firth, who registered www.news-bbc.net as part of a murder mystery game in October 2009, was contacted by Managing IP earlier in the week. He then removed it on Wednesday.

Firth said he started the site "on a whim". But he became worried that the BBC would send him a cease and desist letter about the site, which replicated the corporation's trade mark and colours, and gave the impression that it was owned by them.

One story reported that television presenter Phillip Schofield had been kidnapped, while another rumoured that former Prime Minister Gordon Brown had been involved in affair with Conservative MP Anne Widdecombe.

Firth, who works in internet marketing in York, said the stories were chosen at random in order to fill the site and make it appear legitimate. But he said he had forgotten about it until this week, despite originally intending to take it down some time ago.

A spokesman for the BBC said that no action would be taken as the site had been taken down.