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According to UK's The Daily Mail, in 2006 the company "grabbed mobile call phone data and used it to try and prove a conspiracy against former CEO Arun Sarin and discover whether company figures were briefing the press and analysts."

According to the newspaper reports, the investigation came against the "background of boardroom rumbles at the firm, with rumours that Sarin would be ousted and as it switched chairmen from longtime incumbent Lord MacLaurin to Sir John Bond".
The report said that mobile account data about board members phone calls was dug up but the company claims that it "did not analyse the content of calls. No journalists' Vodafone accounts were investigated", the report noted.

Furthermore the source of the leak was never found, which perhaps is not too surprising since we are talking about a company that deals in new communications technology.

Vodafone now joins the rouges gallery of HP and Deutsche Telekom (DT) as companies that snoop on their own boards to prevent them talking to journalists and getting caught at the same time.

And from a legal standpoint, it is unclear as to what, if any further action or investigation will be taken on Vodafone's Boys Own adventure, although if the HP and DT examples are anything to go by, it may well be prosecutors and lawyers at 10 paces very soon.