Desmond’s fight escalates
A document dump blunder by the UK’s gambling regulator has led to a sensational High Court decision to allow an ex-porn baron’s legal team to use the material in a £200m ($265m) lawsuit against the National Lottery.
right to use more than 4,000 documents mistakenly sent
Judge Nerys Jefford on Tuesday gave Richard Desmond’s legal team the right to use more than 4,000 documents mistakenly sent by the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC).
In giving the go-ahead, Judge Jefford described the UKGC’s mistake as an “unprecedented blunder.”
Major mistake
Judge Jefford’s ruling allows the media kingpin’s firm Northern & Shell “to rely in court on internal presentations, emails, draft reports and other materials” mistakenly sent to it by the UKGC’s law firm, Hogan Lovells.
blunder by the law firm and the UKGC “unprecedented”
According to the Financial Times, Northern & Shell attorney Sa’ad Hossain KC stated he believed the scale of the blunder by the law firm and the UKGC was “unprecedented” and a “bombshell.”
Hogan Lovells allegedly sent more than 4,000 documents containing privileged material to Northern & Shell, which is suing the UKGC over what it claims was an unfair process in awarding the National Lottery contract to Czech firm Allwyn Entertainment.
In a mea culpa letter to Desmond’s legal representatives, Hogan Lovells previously stated: “there have been certain errors in our client’s disclosure process that has led to the inadvertent disclosure of privileged material.”
While the UKGC conceded that many of the documents could be used in the litigation, Judge Jeffers refused permission for documents in several categories to be used in litigation, “such as if they had clearly been marked as privileged, or where it should have been obvious that the documents contained privileged legal advice.”
She did, however, give Desmond’s legal team the right to use over 4,000 documents that did “not disclose the content of any legal advice.”
Desmond’s war
According to the FT, the law firm responsible for the blunder, Hogan Lovells, declined to comment. The UKGC, meanwhile, stated it had “nothing further to add to representations” made during Tuesday’s disclosure hearing in the High Court.
Desmond’s legal war against the UKGC, seeking damages in the regulator’s awarding of the lottery contract to Allwyn, is expected to head to trial later this year.
The ex-porn baron’s case seems to get stronger by the day. In late April, Northern & Shell drew a high-profile UK bank into the conflict, stating Rothschild had a prior conflict of interest with Allwyn.
