CLIFF STANFORD, the technology entrepreneur who made £33 million from the sale of Demon Internet, was yesterday released on bail after being interviewed by police for a second time on suspicion of hacking into another company that he founded.

Mr Stanford appeared at Belgravia police station accompanied by his lawyer to read a prepared statement in which he denied hacking into Redbus Interhouse, a web page hosting company, or illegally intercepting company e-mails.

He is suspected of committing offences under the Computer Mis-use Act and the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, both of which cover high-tech crimes such as hacking and electronic eavesdropping.

Mr Stanford founded Redbus in 1999 but resigned, with two other Redbus directors, in June last year after falling out with John Porter, the chairman at the time. He has twice tried and failed to overthrow the board, and recently sold all his shares in the company.

Police then began investigating alleged attempts to secretly poach the e-mails of Mr Porter. It emerged that Mr Porter’s e-mails were being “bounced” to a Hotmail address, where they were analysed by George Liddell, a corporate troubleshooter working with Mr Stanford.

Mr Porter, who resigned from Redbus in March, is the son of Dame Shirley Porter, the disgraced former Tory leader of Westminster council and daughter of Sir Jack Cohen, the founder of Tesco.

Police first arrested Mr Liddell and then Mr Stanford for questioning over the re-directed emails.

Mr Stanford denies that any crime had taken place. He said: “It’s one thing to be arrested for a crime you didn’t do, but it’s doubly frustrating to be arrested for a crime that never took place. The email re-direct was put in place by an employee of Redbus Interhouse acting of their own volition.”

Mr Stanford was scheduled to re-appear at Belgravia on December 16. A spokeswoman for the National High Tech Crime Unit said: “Cliff Stanford has not been charged with anything; he’s still an innocent man.”