It will be up to the law to decide whether self-proclaimed Brexit ‘Bad Boy’ Arron Banks truly deserves his moniker after the Electoral Commission referred him and various others involved in the running of Leave.EU to the National Crime Agency. The Electoral Commission’s investigation has focused around loans made to Banks’ ‘Better for the Country’ organisation, with the Commission saying that it has “reasonable grounds to suspect” that “Mr Banks was not the true source of the £8m loans made to Better for the Country” and that the loans had come from “impermissible sources”. According to the Commission:

“Our investigation has unveiled evidence that suggests criminal offences have been committed which fall beyond the remit of the Commission. This is why we have handed our evidence to the NCA to allow them to investigate and take any appropriate law enforcement action. This is now a criminal investigation.”

This is of course the same Electoral Commission that were a whisker away from making Banks the lead campaigner in the referendum 2 years ago…

UPDATE: The NCA have confirmed that they are investigating Banks, and that while they would not normally investigate electoral law offences, the “potential for offences to have been committed other than under electoral law” has warranted an NCA investigation in this case:

What could Banks have been up to?

UPDATE II: Banks’ sidekick Andy Wigmore responds:

“We’re pleased it has been referred because we can finally now put to bed these ludicrous allegations”

UPDATE III: Banks responds