Journalists have exposed a website that lifted stories from their colleagues after confronting the teenage entrepreneur who helped create it.

Kent Online’s Rhys Griffiths and Katie Heslop uncovered the truth behind the Kent Chronicle, which was sold to potential advertisers as the county’s “third largest online news publication”, after taking its 17-year-old creator Laurence Moss to task.

The Chronicle featured stories lifted in their entirety from professional journalists, including pieces carried on Kent Online, and which were subsequently attributed to a network of named “reporters”.

But Katie and Rhys’s probe found the profiles of the “reporters” on the Chronicle site had been either faked or based on genuine journalists whose pictures could be found online.

Reporter Rhys Griffiths, right, confronts Kent Chronicle creator Laurence Moss

Mr Moss, who runs Instagram marketing agency Greedy Growth from his home in Kent, denied any personal involvement in the lifting of content for the Chronicle in a video interview with Rhys, which can be found on Kent Online.

Mr Moss apologised and claimed an unnamed “partner” was responsible for the content, but less than 30 minutes after the interview ended, the Chronicle site was taken down and was no longer accessible.

When confronted about the Chronicle, Mr Moss told Rhys: “I designed the website, I don’t get involved in the content distribution and whatnot.

“I run quite a few different start-ups at the moment, Greedy Growth is what I focus on, I do social media marketing, but obviously I do own other websites and I do get involved in other things, but those things aren’t what I am directly involved in, if that makes sense.

“I definitely will speak to [the partner] about [the content taken from KentOnline] because if that is your content, that shouldn’t be on there and I can get that all taken down and stop that happening.

“I set up the website, I designed it, I will talk to the guy who does handle that and we can get this taken off immediately because obviously that is not on at all.”

Mr Moss declined to name his business partner when asked by Rhys, but in a private message sent to Kent Online after the interview he said: “I’ve just taken the website down from my end, and will have a chat to my partner tonight about why it was done in this way in the first place.

“Obviously this is not acceptable and I did not wish for this to happen or for any detriment on your end. I do apologise for this and my lack of awareness as to what was going on.”

Rhys and Katie’s investigation found the Kent Chronicle’s page on Facebook – which has since been removed – was previously run under the name ‘Greedy Growth Ads’ until September.

They also looked into the profiles of four “reporters” purporting to work on the Chronicle and found a number of them featured photos lifted from elsewhere across the internet.

Ian Carter, editorial director at Kent Online owner Iliffe Media, told HTFP: “This was excellent work by reporters Katherine Heslop and Rhys Griffiths – along with David James, editorial assistant in our Bishop’s Stortford office, who uncovered the original link to Laurence Moss.

“This wasn’t a schoolboy hobby – it was set up as a professional advertising platform built on the back of our reporters’ stories. I am glad Laurence acted so swiftly to remove it. The industry is working collectively to stamp out fake websites in whichever form they appear.”

The incident has prompted warnings from both the News Media Association, the trade body for the regional and national press, and NLA Media Access, the collecting society for UK newspapers.

The NLA’s Matt Aspinall revealed that the organisation, which runs a copyright infringement service called Text Tracker, had removed about 20,000 articles across 700 sites,

The NMA said in recent months it has seen several examples of websites targeting “genuine local news websites in a systematic way”.

A spokesman added: “Fake news sites which invest nothing in real journalism yet lift and seek to monetise the content of genuine news media outlets have no place in our democratic society. They cynically undermine the efforts of real journalists who are working to keep the public informed during a time of national crisis.”