David Blunkett to pay £120,000 in blind date scandal:

The former Home Secretary, David Blunkett, has been found guilty of defrauding 24 women and ordered to pay each £5,000 in compensation.

In December 2004, just months after the highly publicised split from his three year affair with Kimberly Fortier, the heart broken Labour MP hit on a novel twist to the online dating boom. He created his own website and generated hundreds of male profiles ... all about himself.

Using his skills as a Labour MP he managed to accurately portray himself in 134 completely different ways. An expert in online dating told us:

"The clever part was that each dating profile would appeal to a different type of woman whilst still being a true and accurate depiction of himself."

Many examples were given in court such as the varying descriptions of his facial hair: "I have a beard", "Old, but still with plenty of hair on my head", "I don't ever see myself growing a beard" and "I have a warm face" were not false claims but were deemed to have been worded in a misleading manner.

Lawyers for the joint action against Mr Blunkett stated:

"He nearly got away with it. He had chosen Glasgow as a target because no-one up here is that interested in politics so he wouldn't be recognised. Fortunately, one of the women he tricked into meeting him called the dating website's helpline and recognised the voice at the other end of the phone as the same voice she had just made a date with. She immediately informed authorities who launched an investigation. Glasgow trading standards sent in four undercover operatives who made dates with four different men on the dating website and the defendant (Blunkett) showed up for all of them."

The women involved have been criticised heavily by the media who feel that they should have realised www.fancyablunkup.com was most likely not a bona fide dating agency.