A BUSINESSWOMAN who served as the mayor’s escort in Weymouth and Portland has been arrested on suspicion of computer hacking.

Café owner Alison Cocks is alleged to have illegally intercepted private emails between local businesspeople.

Her computer has been seized by police and she has been questioned by officers about alleged offences under the Computer Misuse Act.

The Act was established in 1990 to secure computer material against ‘unauthorised access or modification.’ Mrs Cocks, 48, who is in a relationship with Weymouth and Portland councillor and community safety briefholder Ian James, declined to comment.

It is understood the emails that were allegedly hacked into relate to a Weymouth and Portland Borough Council Standards Committee investigation into Councillor Peter Farrell who was cleared. The committee investigates alleged breaches of the code of conduct.

A borough council spokesman said Coun Farrell was ‘completely exonerated’ by the Standards Committee which had launched an inquiry following a complaint.

Coun Farrell also confirmed this, and added in a brief statement: “The only evidence offered was a series of emails between third parties in which I was mentioned.”

Mrs Cocks, who used to be married to former chairman of Weymouth Football Club Paul Cocks, is a member of the Weymouth and Portland Chamber of Commerce.

Her business interests include the Beach Café adjoining the former Tourist Information Centre on Weymouth seafront and Muffins coffee shop in St Alban Street.

When contacted by the Echo and asked about the arrest, Mrs Cocks said: “I don’t want to discuss it.”

Mrs Cocks was the ‘other woman’ at the centre of the Christine James assault case last year. In December, Coun James was given a conditional discharge after admitting assaulting her estranged husband and council colleague Ian.

Local magistrates heard how Christine James attacked Ian James at Mrs Cocks’s home in Mount Pleasant Avenue, Weymouth.

Christine James said she lashed out because her husband was having an affair but Ian James said his relationship with his wife had ended long before he struck up a union with Mrs Cocks.

Mrs Cocks and Christine James used to be friends and went out drinking together.

Before getting together with Ian James, Mrs Cocks was previously in a relationship with another borough councillor, Tim Munro.

They were an item when Coun Munro served as the borough’s mayor in 2008/09 and Mrs Cocks became the mayor’s escort.

A police spokesman said: “A 48-year-old Weymouth woman has been arrested under the Computer Misuse Act. She has been bailed until the middle of May.”