Leave.EU and Arron Banks' insurance firm face £135,000 fine for data misuse
2 min read
Pro-Brexit campaign group Leave.EU and an insurance firm owned by Arron Banks have been hit with a hefty fine over the misuse of voters' data.
The Information Commissioner’s Office are levying a £60,000 fine on Mr Banks’ insurance firm Eldon - trading as GoSkippy - for sending out more than a million marketing emails offering discounts on insurance services to Leave.EU subscribers.
Meanwhile further fines of £60,000 and £15,000 have been handed out to Leave.EU - the unofficial pro-Brexit group during the 2016 referendum campaign - for sending out Leave-supporting campaign emails to customers of the insurance group.
A new report from the said Mr Banks’ firms had committed a “serious breach” of data protection laws by using personal email addresses for targeted advertising.
It said the personal information had been used for communications which users had not consented to.
But Mr Banks defended himself on Twitter, saying there was “no evidence of a grand data conspiracy” instead saying they found his firm “may have accidentally sent a newsletter to customers".
In a separate tweet he said: “Gosh we communicated with our supporters and offered them a 10% Brexit discount after the vote! So what?"
The fines are separate to the National Crime Agency investigation into Mr Banks which is set to investigate the source of the £8m he donated to pro-Brexit groups throughout the EU referendum campaign.
Mr Banks was referred to the NCA after an Electoral Commission investigation said it had "reasonable grounds to suspect" that he had "knowingly concealed and sought to conceal the true circumstances" of that money, which Mr Banks claimed had come entirely from himself.
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