The Liverpool Echo has won the right to reveal details of a nightclub company’s “major tax fraud”, after winning a landmark legal battle in the House of Lords.

The club directors spent two years trying to ban coverage but Lord Nicholls of Birkenhead has now said he was satisfied they would not be able to secure a permanent injunction if the case went to trial for a decision.

The Echo argued that section 12(3) of the Human Rights Act 1998 should protect it against such interim judgments preventing coverage.

Editor Mark Dickinson said: “This is a tremendous victory for press freedom.

“We have argued from day one that our readers have a right to know the information we have been given about Cream [nightclub empire] and the story should be told in the public interest.

“This ruling will be welcomed by newspapers up and down the land. The law lords have sent a clear signal such interim orders should be granted only in circumstances in which the consequence of publication would be grave.”

The Echo had taken the case to the Court of Appeal, which upheld the injunction, but the paper was convinced the judges had got it wrong and took its battle to the House of Lords.

Mark said: “After the Court of Appeal decision there was a significant increase in the number of solicitors seeking temporary injunction for spurious reasons. Happily, that trend will now be reversed.”

The revelations published in the paper today are based on details handed over by a former financial controller of Cream, which explained a deal struck with the Inland Revenue to avoid prosecution if hundreds of thousands of pounds in unpaid tax was handed over.

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