Retail tycoon Mike Ashley was “met with a complete stone wall” following a request to HM Revenue & Customers (HMRC) for personal data relating to a tax dispute, the High Court has heard.
The Sports Direct founder is bringing legal action against HMRC following alleged “extensive” and “egregious” breaches of data protection obligations, as first reported by The Financial Times.
It is understood that HMRC is defending the claim but “accepts that it breached obligations to a smaller extent”.
At the hearing, which began on Monday, the High Court heard that Ashley sold a number of properties to special purpose vehicles owned by Sports Direct International in a deal worth £88.6m in 2012.
HMRC is believed to have opened an inquiry into Ashley’s tax return before later issuing him a notice claiming he owed a further £13.6m in tax.
Mike Ashley challenged this tax notice and it was reportedly withdrawn in October 2022.
Ashley’s lawyers made a request to HMRC in September 2022 asking for his personal data in connection to the inquiry, which is allowed under data protection law and is known as requesting a copy of the personal information as “subject access requests”.
Ashley’s barrister said HMRC “wrongfully withheld a very considerable amount of data on the basis that it does not amount to Mr Ashley’s personal data”.
His team also claimed that while HMRC did provide some of the data, it came 17 months after the request and a month after the legal action was filed.
King’s counsel Anya Proops added that Ashley wanted to know what data HMRC had of his to “help him better understand how these significant decisions concerning his personal property and his personal tax liability came to be taken”.
“In effect, the subject access request had been met with a complete stone wall,” she said. “Despite the fact that HMRC was inevitably processing very extensive personal data concerning Mr Ashley in connection with the inquiry, not a single iota of data was disclosed to him.”
HMRC’s James Cornwell said the tax body “frankly accepts” that it’s previously failed to comply, but added that HMRC has since “actively sought, in good faith, to rectify that default, at the further expenditure of very considerable time and effort”.
The hearing is set to conclude on Tuesday, and a decision is anticipated in writing at a later date.
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