A SECOND BRITISH newspaper chain has been hit with legal action over alleged unauthorised hacking of individuals’ voicemail inboxes.

Sven-Goran Eriksson, the former England football manager, is among the four people who are bringing the claims to the High Court in London.

The others include Coronation Street actress Shobna Gulati, who plays Sunita Alahan; former professional footballer Garry Flitcroft; and Abbie Gibson, a former nanny for the Beckham family.

The claims – being formally put against the Trinity Mirror group, which publishes the Mirror and People newspapers – relate to the time during which CNN pundit Piers Morgan was the editor of the Daily Mirror.

The Financial Times reports the claims allege a “breach of confidence and misuse of private information” relating to the “interception and/or misuse of mobile phone voicemail messages and/or the interception of telephone accounts”.

The claims do not, however, include any specific details of any newspaper articles which are alleged to have been based on the illegally accessed voicemails.

Trinity Mirror told CNN it had not been formally notified about the legal action. When testifying at the Leveson Inquiry, Morgan said his paper had a clean bill of health – and said nobody had ever lodged any legal complaints about such behaviour during his term.

The claims were lodged in court on the same day that the Daily Mirror was found to have libelled comedian Frankie Boyle by describing him as racist, and was ordered to pay him almost £55,000 in compensation.

Shares in Trinity Mirror have fallen by £6, or 8.4 per cent, to £65.75 in London today.