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		</div><p>The founder of pro-Brexit campaign group BeLeave has won his appeal against a £20,000 (€22.2k) fine imposed by the Electoral Commission.</p>
<p>Darren Grimes was fined in 2018 after being accused of breaching spending rules during the EU referendum campaign three years ago.</p>
<p>But the 25-year-old insisted he was “completely innocent” of making false declarations in relation to a £680,000 (€757k) donation to his youth-focused BeLeave group from the main Vote Leave campaign.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="und" dir="ltr"><a href="https://t.co/O4RUrqzcl5">pic.twitter.com/O4RUrqzcl5</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Darren Grimes (@darrengrimes_) <a href="https://twitter.com/darrengrimes_/status/1152236576853897218?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 19, 2019</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>The Electoral Commission – which regulates political parties, members and campaigners – found that BeLeave “spent more than £675,000 (€752k) with (Canadian data firm) Aggregate IQ under a common plan with Vote Leave”, which should have been declared by the latter but was not.</p>
<p>This spending took Vote Leave over its £7 million (€7.8m) legal spending limit by almost £500,000 (€557k).</p>
<p>Mr Grimes, a former fashion student originally from County Durham, raised £93,956 via an online crowdfunding campaign to appeal against the verdict of the commission at the Mayor’s and City of London Court in Central London.</p>
<p>Following the ruling he said: <em>“I am delighted and relieved that the court has found me innocent.</em></p>
<p><em>“This case has taken a huge toll on myself and my family, and I’m thankful it’s now over. I will be eternally grateful to all those people who have supported me – your generosity and kind words of encouragement have kept me going.”</em></p>
<p>In the message, posted on Twitter, he hit out at the watchdog’s handling of the case.</p>
<p><em>“The Electoral Commission’s case was based on an incorrectly ticked box on an application form -something that it had been aware of for over two years and had not been raised in two previous investigations.</em></p>
<p><em>“Yet the Commission still saw fit to issue an excessive fine and to spend almost half a million in taxpayer cash pursuing me through the courts. This raises serious questions about its conduct both during and after the referendum.</em></p>
<p><em>“It’s vital that more young people are encouraged to get involved in politics and make their voices heard. I just hope that the punitive actions of the Electoral Commission don’t put my generation off from engaging in our democracy.”</em></p>
<p>The Electoral Commission said: <em>“We are disappointed that the court has upheld Mr Grimes’ appeal.</em></p>
<p><em>“We will now review the full detail of the judgement before deciding on next steps, including any appeal.”</em></p>
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