Legal Futures on 10th October reported that a barrister, David Lonsdale, who practises at 33 Bedford Row, has won the right to see SAR that his bank made to the NCA about money received into his accounts. In March 2017, NatWest froze one of his joint accounts for 8 days while making a SAR to the NCA, and then in December 2017 froze them all while making more SAR. The bank then gave Mr Lonsdale notice that it was closing his accounts. He issued proceedings claiming breach of contract, breach of the Data Protection Act 1998 and defamation. He also sought disclosure of personal information under the Data Protection Act and summary judgment of the breach of contract claim. Only the application to inspect the SAR succeeded. The judge ruled that the ordinary position under the Civil Procedure Rules was that Mr Lonsdale should be given inspection of the documents that had been mentioned in the defence and statement, and that the argument that an order would involve a tipping-off offence under POCA were unsupported by any evidence. The barrister is quoted as saying that, “To this day I have no understanding as to why the bank took the action that it did”.
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