- Girls aged 17 to 24 were offered up to £15,000 a year for 'adventures' with businessmen
- An undercover reporter met a man from the site who invited her for a 'practical assessment'
- Mark Lancaster, 39, has been arrested and material seized from his home
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An MoD computer consultant has been arrested on suspicion of working for a website offering to pay students' tuition fees in return for sex.
SponsorAScholar.co.uk promised female students aged 17 to 24 up to £15,000 a year in return for 'discreet adventures' with businessmen in private flats or hotel rooms.
Mark Lancaster, 39, was detained at an address in Milton Keynes and material was seized from there and from his family home in the village of Horndean, near Portsmouth.
'Inciting prostitution': A man thought to be Mark Lancaster, 39, is secretly filmed at a McDonald's in south London, allegedly telling an undercover reporter that she would need to have a 'practical assessment' at a nearby flat
The consultant, who had clearance to work on a major Ministry of Defence computer project, is suspected of inciting prostitution in the growing 'sex-for-fees' scandal.
He was questioned and released on police bail and will return to Charing Cross police station in London in February.
The arrest follows an undercover investigation by The Independent into a man who claimed to be an 'assessor' for the site.
An reporter posing as a student arranged to meet him for at a south London McDonald's two weeks ago.
She was told she would have to undergo a 'practical assessment' with him at a nearby flat to demonstrate the level of intimacy she was prepared to show to future 'sponsors', and informed that it would be up to her whether or not she used protection with the men.
The reporter, who secretly filmed the encounter, declined and left. The website has since been taken down.
SponsorAScholar.co.uk used a variety of images of women and glowing testimonials supposedly from satisfied customers.
Sordid: SponsorAScholar.co.uk, which has now been taken down, promised female students aged 17 to 24 up to £15,000 a year in return for 'discreet adventures' with businessmen in private flats or hotel rooms
It claimed 1,400 women had received 'scholarships', but it is not known how many actually contacted the website or whether any money has ever changed hands.
Concerned: Minister for Women Jo Swinson last week urged the police to investigate anyone suspected of taking advantage of students
The website said that most of the sponsors were 'men between the ages of 28 and 50 who run their own successful business and want to have discreet adventures with a student whilst helping them fund their studies through a scholarship'. It even suggested that the sum was tax deductible.
In November, a Channel 4 News undercover reporter attended an interview with the man behind the website in a flat he had rented in south east London.
Although she was told his name was John, the broadcaster believed it was Lancaster.
One student told Channel 4 News that she had the 'practical assessment' and was later told in an email that her application had been unsuccessful - but she could reapply in two months.
The 'assessor' used the name and former address of a top academic at a leading British university in his dealings with potential students. The academic has since contacted the police.
Minister for Women Jo Swinson last week urged the police to investigate anyone suspected of taking advantage of students.
The investigation follows growing concern that rising student fees could be forcing young people into sex work to cover their debt, with experts claiming the site was the 'tip of the iceberg'.
Detective Sergeant Alan Clark urged anyone who had made contact through the website to get in touch with police.
'If anyone has information in relation to the man shown in the film or the photographs or on the website itself, please contact us on 0800 783 2589 and we will get back to you in strict confidence,' he said.
Lancaster was cleared to work on the vast MoD contract known as 'DII' or Defence Information Infrastructure, marrying up the military's various computer networks.
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