Former Tory MP must reveal assets

Mr Allason, an MP until 1997, may face a long jail term

Former Conservative MP Rupert Allason has been threatened with jail if he does not reveal details of his assets.

A High Court Judge found Mr Allason, also known as spy writer Nigel West, guilty of contempt for failing to comply with a court order to supply the information required.

Mr Justice Neuberger gave the 50-year-old a last chance to "come clean" about his assets and income within 18 days or face jail for "a significant time".

The orders relate to an unsuccessful court action which Mr Allason brought against publishers Random House over a copyright dispute last year.

'Dishonest'

In that case another High Court judge described him as a "profoundly dishonest man".

Mr Justice Laddie's comments came after he threw out the former Torbay MP's claims that he was the author of a book published under the name of John Cairncross.

The judge then awarded indemnity costs of around £200,000 against Mr Allason, who had claimed he had ghost-written The Enigma Spy in a deal struck with Mr Cairncross before his death.

Mr Allason had claimed that Random House did not own the copyright to The Enigma Spy and he wanted injunctions stopping release of the book, plus damages.

On Friday Mr Justice Neuberger said Allason's action against Random House had been an "unmitigated disaster" for him.

He said the publisher had always feared Allason would resist, or render himself unable to meet costs.

Random House took action this week to commit Mr Allason to jail for contempt over his failure to comply fully with the order made in the High Court in March after he failed to pay interim costs of £140,000.

Company accounts

In March Mr Allason had produced sworn statements about his assets saying he had no interest in any properties.

And he said that he was unable to provide bank statements for his two companies, Westintel Research and Westintel Ltd, or company accounts.

Random House then applied to the High Court for new orders against Mr Allason but he failed to comply within the time limit.

The publisher alleged Mr Allason was hiding his assets and behaving in a dishonest way to make it as difficult as possible for the publishers to recover its money, the judge said.