Tory donor told to pay costs of former MP
AHIGH-PROFILE Conservative Party donor has been ordered to pay legal costs to a former West Tory MP and faces having to restart a High Court data protection challenge against her.
Businessman Mohamed Amersi attempted to bring a civil claim against Charlotte Leslie, who represented Bristol North West between May 2010 and May 2017, over allegations she tried to damage his reputation.
Mr Amersi, who contributed to Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s leadership campaign, accused Ms Leslie of allegedly collecting information about his business dealings and family and compiling memos and briefing documents.
His lawyers claimed in written arguments prepared for a hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice on Tuesday that these were shared with “various members of the diplomatic, national security and political communities”.
Mr Amersi, who stood down as a governor of the Royal Agricultural University in Cirencester in April this year, pursued a claim against Ms Leslie and CMEC UK & MENA Limited, a company she is director of, over their alleged obligations under UK GDPR rules.
In written submissions, his lawyers asked the court to determine whether there was further personal data held on Mr Amersi that should be disclosed, and if he should be given information in relation to recipients and sources.
Ms Leslie’s lawyers had argued in their written submissions that CMEC UK & MENA Limited had “complied fully” with GDPR provisions and that the claim should be dismissed.
But at Tuesday’s hearing, it was accepted by the parties that Mr Amersi’s claim would need to transfer to a different court procedure as there was a dispute over facts in the case.
Mrs Justice Tipples said this meant that the proceedings were “starting in effect from scratch”.
The judge ordered Mr Amersi to pay some of the defendants’ legal costs to date, noting that he had issued his claim without regard to “pre-action protocol”.
She said Mr Amersi had sought to “have his cake and eat it” in his approach to the case, noting that “costs have inevitably been wasted”.
The judge said if a different procedure had been followed “then it’s very likely that he would not be in the situation which is faced by him today”.
She ordered that a trial date for a claim on the different procedure should be set at some point between March 25 and April 13 next year.