Thread by @carolecadwalla

More extraordinary scenes in the High Court involving Arron Banks.

LeaveEU - & its last remaining director, an ex-South African special forces intelligence officer - failed to show up to its own appeal.

judiciary.uk/wp-content/upl…

This is nuts. Even for Banks. Eldon Insurance & LeaveEU brought this appeal against the Information Commissioner. Then didn’t show up.

Also: curious dates. My libel trial ended Jan 21. 5 days later Banks’s solicitors @kingsleynapley ‘came off record’

Mr Jacobus Coetzee, the named director of LeaveEU who failed to show up to court, is an old associate of Arron Banks. On this exciting page of ‘Bad Boys of Brexit’ featuring all the greats inc Andrew Neil & the Russian ambassador, he describes him as a ‘South African spook’.

A refresher: this was the appeal Arron Banks previously lost. In the judgement, the judge noted - that the man suing me for saying he had lied - was ‘untruthful’ & had been ‘bullying’ toward the Information Commissioner

theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/f…

During parliamentary debate brought by @liambyrnemp & @DavidDavisMP during my trial, it was revealed MI5 had contacted the Information Commissioner - Liz Denham - to tell her it had evidence Banks’s private intelligence firm was illegally surveilling her

independent.co.uk/news/uk/politi…

And who’s a director of Arron Banks’s private intelligence firm, Precision Risks & Intelligence? Why it’s only Mr Jacobus Coetzee. The ex-South African spook who seems to have had a change of mind about turning up to the High Court

And here’s the kicker. Who else was a director of Precision Risks & Intelligence? One Frank Mermoud. A Ukrainian gas specialist all over the Senate Intelligence Report. Enjoy this extract featuring Paul Manafort & a Russian spy, Konstantin Kliminik, discussing ‘the Frank plan’

Important to remember in interests of fairness & balance, that I’m a ‘crazy conspiracist’ who has caused ‘serious harm’ to Mr Banks’s reputation

Note: we still don’t know results of data audit, ICO was undertaking of Eldon & LeaveEU. Also Jacobus Coetzee, the SA spook - who had what to do with Brexit? - really got left holding the baby. He ended up as last remaining director when Banks resigned in Aug last year.

Final postscript. A bit more detail from the doc. In the days after my trial ended, @kingsleynapley ‘sought to come off the record as a matter of urgency in the days leading up to the hearing’. No clues as to why…🤷‍♀️