Dale Vince to receive damages from Mail publisher as libel claim settled
The entrepreneur took legal action against Associated Newspapers Limited over an article published in October last year.
Green energy industrialist Dale Vince is set to receive £40,000 in damages from the publisher of the Daily Mail after settling a High Court libel claim.
Mr Vince took legal action against Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) in December over an article published in October last year, which falsely alleged that he supports Hamas, which is a proscribed terrorist group.
Lawyers for Mr Vince told the High Court on Monday that the article, which was published online and in the Mail on Sunday, was “highly defamatory” and had caused “serious harm to his reputation”.
Lawyers for ANL apologised to Mr Vince and said the publisher acknowledged that the allegation “was untrue and that Mr Vince does not support Hamas in any way”.
Under the terms of the settlement, ANL will also pay £30,000 of Mr Vince’s legal costs and will publish an apology online and in The Mail on Sunday within 14 days.
Reading a joint statement, Mr Vince’s lawyer, Annabell Hood, said he had previously been “falsely accused” of supporting Hamas in a separate article published by the Daily Mail and online in March last year, which also “called for donations he had made to the Labour Party to be returned”.
That case was settled last year, with the company apologising and paying damages, which Ms Hood said Mr Vince donated to charity.
The settlement also included “an undertaking by the defendant not to publish similar allegations in the future”.
But Ms Hood said that a second article, written by Dan Hodges, was published last October which “falsely alleged that Mr Vince had supported or defended the terrorist acts of Hamas” and “again, called into question the donations he had made to the Labour Party”.
She said: “The publication of Mr Hodges’ article has also caused Mr Vince significant distress, not least because he reasonably expected a national newspaper to comply with its undertaking, having been told by the defendant that it had circulated a memorandum to its journalists and editors.”
Lizzie Greene, for ANL, said: “The publication of the Hodges’ article was an error which should not have happened.
“The defendant acknowledges that the allegation made in Mr Hodges’ article about Mr Vince is untrue and that Mr Vince does not support Hamas in any way.
“We formally retract and withdraw the allegation.
“We wish to publicly set the record straight, and to apologise to the claimant for any damage and distress the publication of Mr Hodges’ article caused.”
Ms Hood also said that Mr Vince, who is also the co-owner of National League football team Forest Green Rovers, intended to donate the latest damages award to charity.
Following the hearing, Mr Vince said ANL “broke a promise not to repeat a false allegation”.
He said: “Their cash is on the way to Gaza again. People that support Palestinian rights are not terrorists and free speech is not the freedom to be dishonest.”
