Image: The Telegraph

Former News International CEO, Rebekah Brooks and husband Charlie Brooks are among six arrested by detectives investigating phone hacking, raising the count of arrests in Operation Weeting to 23.

Brooks and her millionaire husband were arrested at their home in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, in a series of raids by Metropolitan Police officers. Rebekah Brooks was also held last July under Operation Weeting, the Metropolitan Police’s investigation into phone hacking at the company.

Police held six people while searching several addresses after dawn raids in London, Oxfordshire, Hampshire and Hertfordshire, Scotland Yard. Officers said in a statement that six people were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

Among the other four attested in the phone hacking scandal are a 39-year-old man from Hampshire, a 46-year-old man from west London, a 38-year-old man from Hertfordshire, and a 48-year-old man from east London.

All the suspects are being interviewed at police stations in Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and London. The Metropolitan Police has confirmed that the arrest was done after consultation with the Crown Prosecution Service.

The phone hacking investigation, which was launched in January 2011, is being led by deputy assistant commissioner Sue Akers and has 91 officers working on it. Operation Weeting is running along with Operation Elveden, looking into corrupt payments to police officers, and Operation Tuleta, looking into offences under the Computer Misuse Act.