MR JUSTICE WARBY
Approved Judgment
NT1 & NT2 v Google LLC
rectification or the addition of a notation. Neither of those remedies has been
claimed. In so far as this complaint applies to the Second Article and/or the
Book Extract it fails for essentially the same reasons. Both, when read as a
whole, gave a clear enough account of what it was that the claimant was
convicted of.
(2)
The second complaint is that the First Article and Book Extract gave a false
impression of the claimant’s role in the management of Alpha. The claimant
has not established that these publications are inaccurate in this respect. If this
complaint is meant to include a claim that the publications falsely implicated
him in the second conspiracy, he has not adequately pleaded that case and he
has failed to persuade me that the publications were inaccurate in this respect:
see (4)-(6) below.
(3)
The third complaint relates to an assertion about Alpha’s fate which featured in
both Articles and in the Book Extract. The claimant’s case is that this is
inaccurate as Alpha “was placed temporarily in administration, the only
creditor was then paid in full and the company was reinstated.” I do not accept
that account of events. I reject the complaint on the further grounds that the
information is not personal data of the claimant; the claimant has fallen a long
way short of showing that the wording used was, in context, inaccurate or
misleading; and for the reasons given at (1) above I would not have ordered
blocking or erasure anyway, as a matter of discretion.
(4)
(5) & (6) These three complaints can conveniently be taken together. They all
relate to the Second Article, and only that article. Each complaint asserts that
specific wording contained in that article was inaccurate. The complaints have
a common underlying theme, namely that the Second Article meant that the
claimant was guilty of the second conspiracy. I agree that it did. The article
made it clear to any reasonable reader that the claimant was convicted of the
false accounting conspiracy, and not convicted or even tried for the second
conspiracy. But it implied that he was guilty of that crime, and that he had got
away with the proceeds of that crime. That was certainly not accurate court
reporting within paragraph 7 of DPA Sch 1 Part II. The question is one of
substance. The claimant has not persuaded me that the Second Article was
inaccurate in any of these respects. He was not convicted of participation in the
second conspiracy. But nor was he acquitted. He was charged. The CPS
considered it had a realistic prospect of securing a conviction. He was not
tried, but for reasons that have no bearing on his guilt or innocence. The
absence of a conviction does not tilt the balance in his favour. I find that he
had sufficient control of Alpha’s affairs to cause millions to be transferred to
his offshore companies commencing shortly after his return from abroad. The
second conspiracy was already under way at that time, which makes it more
likely than not that the funds that went to the offshore companies included the
proceeds of fraud. The second conspiracy continued for a long while
thereafter. The claimant’s increased shareholding after the buy-out of Mr
Steinbeck gave him legal and, in my judgment, practical control of Alpha.
That view is supported by the conclusions reached by the sentencing Judge
and the Court of Appeal, which I consider to be both admissible and reliable
for present purposes. The business carried on a good deal more than a year