ITV is set to escape a seven-figure fine over a vote-rigging scandal involving Ant and Dec, its star presenters, because of a Channel Islands legal loophole. The network is expected to get away with a “derisory” fine for passing over the viewers’ choice of winner, the comedian Catherine Tate, so that Ant and Dec would receive an award from their friend the pop star Robbie Williams.

Regulators believe the incident warranted a penalty in line with the £2m levied against GMTV last year after viewers entered competitions they had no chance of winning.

Ofcom, the broadcasting watchdog, is understood to be furious that ITV has instead benefited from a licensing technicality that means any fine is likely to be a fraction of that amount.

Sources say the current system is “totally unacceptable”, and the regulator is braced for a public outcry when it announces its fine in the next few weeks.

The loophole allows ITV programmes to be registered for compliance purposes with a tiny franchise, Channel Television, based in Jersey and Guernsey.

About 40% of ITV shows – mostly made by independent production companies – are vetted in the Channel Islands to ensure that they do not breach broadcasting guidelines.

It means that Ofcom can levy fines against these programmes based on only the modest advertising revenue of Channel Television, rather than the £1.5 billion earned last year by ITV plc, which owns 11 of the 15 ITV regional franchises.

The regulator now wants the entire ITV network to be liable for any future cases of deception, a move that could result in the broadcaster facing enormous fines of as much as £75m.

If the loophole cannot be closed through a voluntary agreement with ITV, Ofcom will urge ministers to introduce new legislation to enforce the change.

Last week Ed Richards, Ofcom’s chief executive, told the Commons culture select committee: “The sanction system should be linked to where the real responsibility lies rather than attached to single individual licences, which has been an anomaly and a constraint in relation to our meeting the seriousness of the concern in this area.”

The full extent of the deception at the 2005 British Comedy Awards came to light only earlier this month after ITV published the findings of an investigation.

The independent inquiry by Olswang, a law firm, revealed that Williams was given an assurance that he would be able to present an award to Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly. However, Ant and Dec had not won any of the awards determined by the jury. The only award they could have gone on to win was the People’s Choice award, which was to be decided by a premium-rate phone vote.

It transpired that voters favoured Tate for her BBC comedy show, yet Ant and Dec were announced the winners.

To make matters worse, viewers were encouraged to keep on voting even after the award had been presented by Williams, because part of the ceremony was recorded and then broadcast “as live”.

The Olswang report said Williams, McPartlin and Donnelly were all unaware that the vote had been fixed.

A regulatory source said: “This was one of the worst cases, if not the worst case, that have come to light.”

The programme was made by Michael Hurll Television (MHTV), an independent production company, and was shown across the country on ITV1. However, MHTV asked Channel TV, the privately owned ITV broadcaster in the Channel Islands, to handle compliance issues for the show.

This means that Channel TV – rather than ITV plc – is now being investigated by Ofcom, which can fine it a maximum of 5% of its advertising revenue. The biggest fine it could receive would be about £175,000, but it is believed the figure will be closer to £50,000.

Don Foster, the Liberal Democrat culture spokesman, said: “The public will see this as a derisory amount for the scale of deception involved. ITV is ultimately responsible for what appears on our screens so it should be held to account.”

ITV said producers were free to decide which licensed franchise they used for compliance. “We have serious reservations about the existing compliance structure and have raised these concerns with Ofcom.”

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