Its members are attractive female News of the World reporters, reportedly between the ages of 24 and 26, specially recruited by editor Phil Hall for their ability to charm the pants off misbehaving men in high places.

One of the angels' most high profile "victims", England rugby captain, Lawrence Dallaglio, unwittingly admitted to reporter Louise Oswald: "Women are my achilles heel."

But he denied the drug allegations, and said he told the reporters lies to impress them.

It's the oldest sting in the book - the honeytrap.

Lawrence Dallaglio: Stung

In an interview with the Press Gazette, Mr Hall said he had developed a policy of recruiting more and younger women in his editorial ranks.

"The best cover on an investigative story can sometimes be a couple. You cannot send two blokes to an orgy," he said.

Tabloid investigative reporters often work within the blurred - some might say murky - divide between "justifiable subterfuge" and entrapment.

The Press Complaints Commission's voluntary code of conduct spells out that journalists must not obtain information using clandestine recording devices, or by using "misrepresentation or subterfuge".

The absolute caveat, however, is if the journalist can prove that what he or she uncovers is in the domain of "public interest".

Spokesman for the PCC, Luke Chaveau, explained: "It is up to the journalist or newspaper to demonstrate the public interest value of their story.

"Clearly, some stories do stray further into the grey area than others.

"But it is generally accepted that if public figures, that is to say, people who occupy a prominent public position and have a public life, are alleged to be committing crime, then it is in the public interest to know that."

For women reporters to gain access to information in this way is no new thing.

Guile and cunning are, after all, essential qualities in any journalist, and especially those involved in investigative work.

Dawn Alford insisted she was "no dolly with a dictaphone"

In 1997, the Mirror's Dawn Alford impersonated a drugs buyer and was rewarded with a story on the home secretary's son William Straw dealing cannabis.

And Aylia Fox carved a career on the News of the World setting up "kinky managers" and unearthing exclusives including Mandy Allwood's multiple pregnancy.

The difference now is that there are simply more young women knocking around the offices of national newspapers.

There was a time when union regulations meant that the route to a job on the nationals necessitated an apprenticeship on a local rag, followed by years of slogging in local newsrooms.

You would be doing well to get to Fleet Street, as it was, by your early 30s.

Now, however, spurred on by the lower wages that younger, inexperienced reporters command, and the need - investigative or otherwise - for young staff, newsrooms are filling up with 20-somethings.

And while there are still men who believe that a short skirt equals impaired intellect, these make-believe bimbos will be able to capitalise on their boasts and idle chatter.

Tom Parker-Bowles: Caught in Cannes

Unfortunately for the likes of Mr Dallaglio and Tom Parker-Bowles - who confided his predilection for Colombian substances to another of Hall's Angels, Nadia Cohen - they come wired to record every single word.

And the intimacy of hotel rooms provide the optimum background noise-free environment to do it.

Victims may shout "set-up" and "unfair" like John Alford, the former London's Burning star whose possession of cocaine was revealed by the newspaper's investigations editor, Mazher Mahmood.

But Professor of Journalism at Cardiff University, Ian Hargreaves, says that muckraking is an important part of the work of the tabloid press, however, and that its investigations are of great value.

"Muckraking does need to be done, it is very important, and there is no doubt that the tabloids do it better than the others," he said.

"But there is nothing new in newspapers hiring a certain type of person to get certain types of information.

"It is no different from the way the Peterborough Column or the Evening Standard Londoner Diary used to hire well brought-up things straight out of university in the belief that they knew their way around the Home Counties hunt ball scene."

But he warned that the reporters themselves should be wary of exploitation, and never do things they feel to be morally wrong just because a news editor thinks it is a good idea.

And maybe his most dire warning for Mr Hall's hackettes is this: "The honeytrappers, these nubile young things, need to remember that they will not be young forever. They would do well to use their time to perfect skills which will ensure that they are still working and writing when they are in their 30s."