"...had the ability to illegally intercept mobile phone voice mails, commonly known as phone tapping."

I thought phone tapping was where calls are intercepted in real time, either by inserting a tap on a line or by using call redirection.

Dialling up an operator's voicemail gateway and using someone else's credentials to listen to their voicemail is something different - still illegal but not phone tapping. Surely "The Yard" would know the difference becuase they get to do it legally (and probably illegally as well).