By . Daily Mail Reporter . Last updated at 2:20 PM on 15th February 2012 . Travel ban: Cheryl Carter, personal assistant to former NI chief executive Rebekah Brooks, has been forced to surrender her passport . Rebekah Brooks' personal assistant was planning to emigrate to Australia just days before she was arrested in the News Of The World phone hacking scandal, it has emerged. Cheryl Carter, 47, had her passport confiscated by officers . from Scotland Yard's Operation Weeting team, set up to investigate . allegations of phone hacking at the newspaper, where Ms Brooks . was a former editor. The . arrest, on suspicion of attempting to pervert the course of justice, means that Mrs Carter has been separated from her husband and two . children, who have had to fly to Australia without her to meet strict . visa requirements. As Ms . Brooks' personal assistant for 19 years, police believe Mrs Carter has an . 'intimate knowledge' of the former chief executive's day-to-day . arrangements. Mrs Carter . would have had to keep business diaries and personal schedules as Ms . Brooks rose through the News International ranks, From News Of The World . editor to Sun editor, and finally to NI chief executive. Police hope Mrs Carter, who denies any wrongdoing, can shed more light onto the . hacking investigation, and felt it necessary to arrest her and restrict . her movement for further questioning. In stark contrast, no such restrictions are currently placed on Ms Brooks, who enjoyed a New Year sunshine break in Cape Town, South Africa, with her husband Charlie. Though arrested on July 15 last year, like many News International executives Ms Brooks was allowed to attend a police station by appointment to be questioned. She is bailed to return for questioning by police in March. Her lawyer has said she denies committing any criminal offence. Sunshine break: Rebekah Brooks and her husband Charlie flew to South Africa to spend New Year's Eve there . Relaxed and happy: Despite the growing phone hacking scandal, Ms Brooks and her husband smiled as they posed for photos on their holiday . Ms Brooks also became a mother to a baby girl Scarlett, born via a surrogate at the end of January. It is unclear how long Mrs Carter will be separated from her own children. She was arrested on January 6 at her home in Billericay, Essex, during a dawn raid by Operation Weeting officers. Detectives are understood to be . investigating allegations that emails were destroyed at the company . before evidence was handed over to the Metropolitan Police. Proud mother: Brooks with baby Scarlett, born via a surrogate mother on January 25. Mrs Carter's arrest means she has been separated from her two children . Mrs Carter is a partner in a cosmetics . business with former model and celebrity make-up artist Sue Moxley, and . has also offered beauty tips on website Thinkingslimmer.com. It is understood she left NI shortly . after Ms Brooks resigned from the company and was planning to relocate to . Australia at the end of January to take up employment at News Limited, . the Australian arm of Rupert Murdoch's News International. While sources at NI told The . Independent newspaper that Mrs Carter's move Down Under had been planned . for some time, other colleagues reportedly expressed surprise - not only at the move but how . Mrs Carter and her family were able to obtain Australian visas. One was quoted in the paper as saying: . 'It's quite difficult to get to Australia and Cheryl is a make-up . expert - she doesn't exactly have expert skills.' Operation Weeting is running in . parallel with Operation Elveden, into alleged bribery of public . officials. A string of senior journalists at The Sun newspaper have been . arrested in connection with the Elveden investigation. Phone-hacking . detectives working their way through 300 million emails from NI have . arrested a series of high-profile figures, including ex-Downing Street . communications chief Andy Coulson. Some . 1,800 people have come forward to express fears that they may have been . hacked but the final total of people whose phones were hacked by the . News of the World will be about 800, the force believes. The . scandal has already led to the closure of the Sunday tabloid after 168 . years, prompted a major public inquiry, and forced the resignation of . Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson and assistant . commissioner John Yates. The News International Staff Association wants an urgent meeting with News Corp boss Rupert Murdoch over the role played by an internal committee into the arrests of ten journalists at The Sun newspaper. The association, representing NI staff, has discovered that the Management and Standards Committee (MSC)  - set up by News Corp - gave information to the police about News Corp staff. One claim, denied by the MSC, is that it is passing details of expenses claims - specifically lunch or drinks claims with contacts. NI staff - including those at newspapers The Sun, The Times and the Sunday Times - are concerned the MSC is compromising the anonymity of their sources and contacts. But a spokeman for the MSC told The Guardian: 'The information handed to the police is relating to unlawful material. The information is redacted to ensure that lawful journalistic inquiries are not threatened.'
Cheryl Carter denied travel and separated from her family after arrest over phone hacking scandal . Her former boss was still allowed to enjoy a sunshine holiday in South Africa after her arrest . News International staff demand meeting with Murdoch over role of internal committee that gave information about journalists to police .