The jury has retired to consider verdicts in the trial of a Sun reporter accused of plotting with a Government press officer over a string of leaks to the newspaper, including details of Alistair Darling's 2010 budget.
Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) press officer Jonathan Hall was allegedly paid around £17,000 for tips to Whitehall editor Clodagh Hartley over a period of three years.
The Old Bailey trial has heard that in March 2010 Hall gave the journalist information that went into an exclusive double-page spread about Mr Darling's budget before he stood up to deliver it to MPs. A financial trail revealed that Hall was paid £750 for the story.
He was also paid £500 for a story in December 2009 about celebrities including Kelly Brook being paid as part of a £1.3 million taxpayer-funded TV campaign publicising the Government website Directgov, jurors were told.
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The court has heard that Hartley suggested to Hall that he channel the News International payments through the bank account of his girlfriend Marta Bukarewicz because he was a "protected source".
Hartley, 40, of Brockley, south east London, and Bukarewicz, 45, of Kentish Town, north west London, deny a charge of conspiracy to commit misconduct in a public office.
Hall has accepted that he supplied stories to Hartley for which he was paid but is not in the dock.
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