The Serious Fraud Office was today weighing up whether to launch an investigation into the £35 million GMTV phone in scandal.

Officers have asked Ofcom, the communications regulator, to provide them with documents relating to the case, which saw the breakfast broadcaster admit to taking calls from viewers for two years in phone-in competitions that they had no chance of winning.

The disclosure will put further pressure on the ITV chairman Michael Grade, who is already battling to fend off resignations in the wake of revelations this week of a further £7.8 million worth of wrongly taken calls in a series of high profile programmes.

Mr Grade today again refused to say whether anyone would be sacked over the latest saga, but did say that he would have resigned if he had been chief executive.

The SFO's decision to consider an investigation came after Ofcom last month fined GMTV a record £2 million following the breakfast broadcaster's admission that it had taken the £35m worth of calls in faked competitions.

The SFO said that, before deciding whether to investigate the matter itself, it would wait for Ofcom to review the evidence in the latest set of alleged deceptions, involving shows such as Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway and Gameshow Marathon.

Ofcom began an enquiry this morning on these revelations, which is likely to take several months and could also lead to a fine of around £2 million.

Speaking today on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Grade refused to say whether those responsible would be sacked.

"It would be completely inappropriate to prejudge disciplinary processes," he said. "In deciding on any disciplinary action, you have to be sure that the evidence you have got is secure."

However, he added: "If I had been the chief executive at the time, I would have resigned."

Asked if the scandals amounted to fraud, he said: "Let’s not dance around words and semantics: this is wrong. W-R-O-N-G wrong."

Speaking on BBC One’s Question Time programme last night, Peter Hain, the Work and Pensions Secretary, had increased the pressure on Mr Grade by describing the activities at ITV as "almost daylight robbery".

"People were tricked and conned into getting rid of millions of pounds on an absolutely false prospectus," he said.

"I think the public who were robbed of their money will want to know that this will never happen again, and that those who are responsible, including on the Ant and Dec show, will be nailed.

"The people that paid their money in on the basis of what they believed was the case and found their money was being smuggled away and robbed from them - that’s very serious indeed."

A spokeswoman for Ofcom said today that its investigation was ongoing.

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