Louis Walsh - Walsh In Phone-Hacking Scandal

Police in Ireland have launched an investigation over allegations TV music mogul LOUIS WALSH was targeted by a hacker who tapped into his private cell phone.

The X Factor judge and Boyzone manager was recently contacted by an executive at his telephone network service provider, who informed him an employee of Vodafone had allegedly been caught snooping through his personal voicemail and text messages.

Police have now launched an investigation into the claims and Walsh is considering taking legal action against the firm.

He says, "I don't know how much personal information he managed to gather or how long it was going on. I knew nothing about it at all until the boss of the company contacted me. I was told an employee had hacked my phone.

"The last I heard the matter was with Gardai (Irish police force) and there would be a court case.

"What measures are in place to stop this happening? It makes me very wary of exchanging confidential information by phone and yet it's hard to avoid given the nature of this business."

A statement from Vodafone reads, "Internal security processes recently discovered that a retail employee of Vodafone was involved in an incident of alleged misuse of customer information. (We) immediately notified the Garda and contacted the customer to advise on appropriate security measures."