At the High Court Ashley, the founder of SportsDirect, claimed that HMRC had breached his subject access rights under Article 15 of the data protection rules under GDPR.

The claim related to a subject access request (SAR) which Ashley made through his solicitors Reynolds Porter Chamberlain LLP on 13 September 2022.

The SAR sought access to Ashley’s personal data processed by HMRC in connection with an enquiry into his tax return for the 2011-12 tax year.

The enquiry was conducted by the HMRC’s wealthy and mid-size business compliance department (WMBC), which had started with an enquiry launched between February 2014 and October 2016, in the course of which HMRC and the Valuation Office Agency accessed over 600 documents from Ashley to source personal data in the pursuit of the inquiry involving valuations of 32 properties, which VOA felt were undervalued.