Former Ipswich Town chief executive Simon Clegg has emerged as an alleged phone-hacking victim and is set to argue that his voicemail messages were intercepted by journalists from The Sun.

Mr Clegg, who was chief executive of the Portman Road club from 2009 to 2013, is one of 16 celebrities and public figures behind the fresh claim of phone-hacking, which was aired on Wednesday at London’s High Court at a preliminary hearing in the third round of the long-running civil litigation against News Group Newspapers (NGN).

Reportedly, the phone-hacking claims range from 2000 to 2006, before his appointment at Ipswich Town.

NGN, which has previously settled a large number of phone-hacking damages claims brought against the now defunct News of the World, has always said that there was no hacking activity at its sister tabloid The Sun.

Reportedly, the claims presented in court included examples provided by Mr Clegg – who helped secure the London 2012 Olympics while chief executive of the British Olympic Association from 1997 to 2008 – who said that around half of the articles he alleges were obtained through phone hacking were published in the Sun.

During the case management conference into 16 cases which are proceeding to a possible trial later this year, NGN’s QC, Antony White, told Mr Justice Mann that five of them were affected by an attempt to open a “new front” in the litigation against The Sun. He said he would need a month’s adjournment to deal with the proposed amendment, which NGN only heard about at the beginning of this week.

He said the allegations went back to 1998 and involved a number of journalists who had not previously featured in the litigation and were no longer with the group.

The judge said that he would give his decision on whether to allow the claims to be

EastEnders actors Christopher Parker and Brooke Kinsella and Coronation Street actors Kym Marsh, Samia Ghadie and Alan Halsall also feature in the list.

Others are designer Pearl Lowe and her musician husband Danny Goffey and Leslie Heseltine who is better known as actor and comedian Les Dennis.

A spokeswoman for News UK said: “Following many years of investigation, there were no charges against The Sun or its employees for voicemail interception.

“Today, certain claimants seeking financial settlements arising from activities at the News of the World have made unsubstantiated claims against The Sun. If the Court permits such claims to proceed, The Sun will defend them vigorously.”