Lawyers for British Gas have secured a court order preventing a blogger from writing posts which claim the company is engaged in “unlawful” business practices.
At the Court of Session in Edinburgh the company secured an interim interdict against Derek McPherson, a guest house operator from Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis. It believes that Mr McPherson’s blog which is called “British Gas: a Lawless Private Company?” contained incorrect information which was damaging to its business.
A judgment issued yesterday said that Mr McPherson wrote a blog on May 2 which contained damaging claims. In the blog Mr McPherson claimed that agents for British Gas covered up “unlawful business practices”, and “provided blatantly false and dishonest information in clear violation of anti-fraud legislation throughout the UK”. He also claimed that a lawyer working for British Gas was corrupt. The blog was the first in a series of 12.
The judgment states that the blog contained claims that British Gas is engaged in “massive fraud” and is ignoring its obligations under Schedule 5 of the 1995 Gas Act. On May 13 , Lady Poole agreed with submissions made by British Gas and granted the interim interdict preventing Mr McPherson making incorrect claims about the business. In the judgment, published yesterday, Lady Poole explained: “In my opinion, this language, with which the existing blog is peppered, bears a defamatory meaning when objectively read. I do not accept that the defender has shown that the statements set out above made by him are true.
“Nor do I accept that what is written in the blog could amount to fair comment. There is no evidence before me of convictions in any court for fraud, theft, conspiracy or any offence of dishonesty on the part of the pursuers, in respect of the matters raised by the defender.
“Having balanced the various relevant considerations, I am of the opinion that the balance of convenience is firmly in favour of grant of interim interdict.”
Lady Poole also wrote that this did not stop Mr McPherson from continuing to write on his blog. He was just unable to write anything which was defamatory.
The blog is still operational.
It is not the first time that Mr McPherson has been involved in a legal dispute. In 2018 he was awarded £750 compensation after a sheriff ruled that the energy ombudsman mishandled a complaint he made against British Gas.
Mr McPherson was running a campaign to stop alleged discrimination against islanders who receive gas piped from the Stornoway gasworks to their homes. He claimed he was paying 30 per cent more than he should have done. He claimed that Scottish Gas — which had no involvement with the Stornoway sheriff court action — had been charging a more expensive “Stornoway” tariff to its 1,100 customers in the town. Scottish Gas denied claims that up to 1,000 households were overcharged, saying 350 customers in Stornoway switched to a different deal.
The energy regulator Ofgem later took up the issue to ensure island customers were allowed to move on to the cheapest tariff, including its “white label” operation with Sainsbury’s Energy.