One of its media relations managers has been caught posing as a student with an assumed name and fake email address to gather intelligence on rival companies from a leading lottery consultant.

Alexia Latham, a Cambridge law graduate, resigned from Camelot earlier this month after the National Lottery Commission (NLC), the industry watchdog, launched an investigation into the scam.

The probe comes just days before the deadline for companies to lodge bids for the rights to run the national lottery from 2009 and is a blow to Camelot. It has operated the lottery since it began in 1994, raising £19 billion for good causes, and is tipped to win a third consecutive licence.

The sole rival to declare its intention to bid is Sugal & Damani, which runs state lotteries in India. Intralot, a Greek firm, may yet join the race before the February 9 deadline.

Camelot insists that Latham, 33, was acting on her own and had not been instructed by senior management to use underhand tactics to dig for information on rivals.

The NLC investigation was prompted by a complaint from Glenn Barry, a Sydney-based consultant who has advised on lotteries in Australia, Asia and America.

Latham contacted Barry last November claiming to be a student at a London business school. Using the email address karen.dikins@googlemail, Latham, or “Karen”, said she was researching a paper on lottery contracts and focusing on the UK.

Barry became suspicious after Latham’s third email. “She seemed to be far more knowledgeable about the subject than your average student,” he said.

In an email dated December 1, 2006, “Karen” wrote of the UK contest: “Eerily quiet given the deadline is a few weeks away . . . do you really think that Intralot will bid given all their other areas of interest at the moment — and that Ladbrokes (who usually partner them) have said they are not interested . . ?”

On December 22, an interview by Barry with the chief executive of Sugal & Damani appeared in an online trade publication. The next day, “Karen” wrote: “Saw your article . . . do you think they really are seri-ous/have any chance of winning? I don’t suppose you know whether they’ve got UK-based advisers?”

When Barry responded to the email, he received an “out of office” reply — from alexia.latham@camelot-group. The email gave the address of Camelot’s head office in Watford. Barry believes Latham was “rumbled” because she was redirecting emails from the false Karen Dikins account to her work account at Camelot. He received the “out of office” reply because she had taken a few days off for Christmas.

When Barry contacted the office of Dianne Thompson, Camelot’s chief executive, to reveal the scam, the operator initially denied any wrongdoing.

Camelot said Latham, who joined the company in 2005, at first claimed innocence, but admitted the deception after Barry complained to the NLC on January 4. Her offer to resign was accepted with immediate effect.

This weekend Latham’s friends were struggling to make sense of her actions. “She’s extremely nice and gets on well with people. By no means is she stupid,” said one. Latham is a trained lawyer and worked at Simmons & Simmons, a City law firm, before moving into public relations.

Two other potential bidders for the licence, Sir Richard Branson and Tat-tersalls, an Australian lottery operator, have already ruled themselves out. The dearth of competition has led the NLC to extend the bid deadline.

Camelot said any information obtained by Latham was already in the public domain or was too “subjective” to be of any value. It added: “No one else in the Camelot corporate affairs team had any knowledge about this incident before the employee concerned admitted it. Nor can we find any evidence that anyone else in Camelot knew about it.” Latham was unavailable for comment.

Additional reporting: Alexandra Cain in Sydney

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