Tower Hamlets Town Council and police were forced to launch a major probe after the East London Advertiser revealed entire streets and tower blocks could have fallen victim to an alleged postal voting scam in the recent local elections.

The Archant-owned Advertiser revealed how dozens of postal ballot forms were being redirected to the same address.

Under electoral law, it is legal to ask for a postal ballot form to be redirected to an address other than your own, as long as it is completed in private by the voter. But the sheer volume of requests aroused suspicion.

Chief reporter and columnist Ted Jeory uncovered the potential scam, and in the same week also landed the chance to air his views to a worldwide audience of 150m when he was invited along to the BBC World Service studios to be interviewed about the local elections in Tower Hamlets.

As well as talking about the fraud allegations, he vented his opinions on everything from the expanse of Canary Wharf and the Olympics to council sleaze.

He said: “I did the live satellite link-up from Bethnal Green Gardens, which is just around the corner from our office. They asked me to do it as an expert on Tower Hamlets because I run my own weekly political column called Trial by Jeory.

“It was for their World Briefing slot. As part of their build up to the local elections, their reporters were travelling along the district line exploring several of the London boroughs. They did a vox pop of people’s views about what the issues were in Tower Hamlets and then asked me for my opinions. I was asked whether the war was still a big issue here as it had been when George Galloway beat Oona King last May.

“I was given two minutes which wasn’t enough really as there’s so much going on with all the voting corruption, the expansion of Canary Wharf, the City, the Olympics, squalid housing conditions and council sleaze.

“As I’d broken the story about postal ballot fraud here last week and was about to reveal that police were going to guard polling booths across the borough on election day, I had a lot to get out, so I probably sounded like a motor-mouth.”

Ted started out at Archant Suffolk’s East Anglian Daily Times as a trainee before leaving as a senior last September. Do you have a story about the regional press? Ring 0116 227 3122/3121, or e-mail [email protected]