By CHRIS DANIELS
Sting operations have been a speciality of British tabloid newspapers for years, with the classic "honeytrap" ranking alongside bogus Arab sheikhs as a favourite way to loosen tongues.
New Zealand Olympic equestrian Mark Todd fell for the trap in an English hotel room last year, when a young friend decided to try some covert reporting for the Sunday Mirror.
The newspaper arranged for the man to gather photographic evidence of him and Todd appearing to snort cocaine.
Just a year before, Prince Charles' godson Tom Parker Bowles was caught out by his reputation as a "sucker for a pretty face."
A young, female News of the World journalist went to the Cannes Film Festival and stalked Parker Bowles, posing as a "society girl."
Parker Bowles found his drug-buying advice plastered on the front page the next day.
Just one week later another to fall for a pretty face was former England rugby captain Lawrence Dallaglio.
He shot his mouth off to reporters posing as representatives of a shaving products company.
Between glasses of champagne, Dallaglio boasted to one of them - a young woman - about taking cocaine and Ecstasy on a British Lions tour of South Africa.
He also said he had previously sold drugs for a living and enjoyed orgies with prostitutes.
Dallaglio later said none of this was true; he had simply lied to impress the woman.
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