Millionaire Arron Banks' insurance empire and Brexit campaign will be slapped with £135,000 in fines from the UK's data watchdog. The Information Commissioner (ICO) today announced it will fine Eldon Insurance and Leave.EU £60,000 each for "serious breaches" of electronic marketing law. It ruled more than a MILLION e-mails advertising Eldon - which trades as GoSkippy - were sent to Leave.EU subscribers without consent. And in a "serious, separate breach", almost 300,000 Leave.EU newsletter e-mails were sent to Eldon customers to pitch for Brexit. For this second violation Leave.EU will be fined £15,000. The watchdog has now launched a full audit of Eldon as one MP suggested Mr Banks had presided over a "grubby practice" of sharing data for profit. Today's ruling is a fresh humiliation for Mr Banks - who is being investigated by the National Crime Agency over claims he hid the "true source" of £8m in Brexit donations. The diamond mine tycoon and ally of Nigel Farage, who once donated £1million to UKIP, co-founded Leave.EU and it became the second-biggest campaign for Brexit in 2016. Today's ICO report found Leave.EU sent 1,069,852 e-mails to its subscribers in 2017 that included a GoSkippy banner and discount offer. A single e-mail announcing a "sponsorship" deal with GoSkippy was also sent to more than 49,000 e-mail addresses in 2016. The ICO said Leave.EU subscribers had not consented to receive marketing for the insurance firm. Meanwhile, Eldon customers' e-mail addresses were accessed by Leave.EU staff and "used to unlawfully send political marketing messages." The ICO found Leave.EU staff sent an e-mail newsletter intended for its own subscribers to more than 319,000 Eldon customer e-mails on 16 September 2015. The ICO has now launched a full audit of Eldon Insurance. Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham told MPs today: "The fines could be significantly higher if we find misdeeds". Deputy Commissioner James Dipple-Johnstone said a member of staff at one organisation was able to access lists of data from the other. He told MPs: "We want to audit to see if at a system level that is represented, rather than just an individual member of staff making an error." Labour MP Paul Farrelly asked the watchdog: "If Mr Banks had indeed donated any of his own money he may well have got some of that back, depending how many insurance policies he sold. "Would you characterise that as sharp practice, or grubby practice?" Leave.EU confessed it had been fined after part of the report was leaked ahead of time last night. The campaign raged in a statement that the investigation had been "sabotaged" by the leak. And it pointed out the ICO had shot down a separate, persistent claim against Leave.EU - that it worked substantially with shamed data firm Cambridge Analytica. The ICO report said: "There is no evidence of a working relationship between CA and Leave.EU proceeding beyond this initial phase." A spokesman said: "For the record, the person complaining received a £40 voucher and a sincere apology. "All of our companies take data protection extremely seriously." Deputy Information Commissioner James Dipple-Johnstone told MPs the ICO has "similar concerns" about the use of data for electronic marketing at Vote Leave, the official pro-Brexit campaign group led by Boris Johnson and Michael Gove. "The investigation [into Vote Leave] is ongoing and we expect to be able to report in a matter of weeks," he said.
Brexit campaign group Leave. EU, along with businessman Arron Banks' company Eldon Insurance, will be fined £60,000 ($79,000) each. In what it called "serious breaches" of electronic marketing law, the Information Commissioner ruled that over a million emails were sent to Leave. EU subscribers without their consent, advertising Eldon. Leave. EU will be fined an additional £15,000 for sending Leave. EU newsletter emails to almost 300,000 Eldon customers. May has been accused by some in her own party and within parliament of being too close to big business. He is already being investigated by the National Crime Agency over suggestions he was not the "true source" of his £8m donation to the Leave. EU campaign.