<\/p>\n
A US-based private detective bought a large house in California and had $150,000 in savings \u201calmost entirely\u201d from work he did for the publisher of the Daily Mail, the high court has heard.<\/p>\n
Daniel Portley-Hanks, also known as \u201cDetective Danno\u201d, said he received about $1m for work carried out for the Mail on Sunday, another title published by Associated Newspapers<\/a> Ltd (ANL).<\/p>\n Giving evidence, Portley-Hanks said he went bankrupt after the publisher stopped using his services after the 2012 Leveson inquiry into the practices of the press. He said he had been told he could keep working for the publisher only if he gave up his private investigator\u2019s licence.<\/p>\n Portley-Hanks, 79, was giving evidence in a case brought by seven claimants, including Prince Harry<\/a>, who accuse ANL of using unlawful information gathering techniques over decades.<\/p>\n The other claimants are Elton John and his husband, David Furnish, the actors Elizabeth Hurley<\/a> and Sadie Frost<\/a>, the former Liberal Democrat MP Simon Hughes and the mother of Stephen Lawrence, Doreen Lawrence<\/a>.<\/p>\n Portley-Hanks said he worked for the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday from the early 1990s to around 2013. He said he was \u201cthe database guy\u201d, stating: \u201cAll I needed was a name or a phone number and I could find a target\u2019s contact and other private details, usually within minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n In court, Portley-Hanks said he did not believe anything he was doing was illegal \u201cat the time\u201d, but that he now believed he had carried out activities that are unlawful in the UK, including the gathering of personal data.<\/p>\n This was challenged by ANL\u2019s legal team, who pointed to his previous public statements stating he had not broken the law.<\/p>\n ANL denies that its journalists engaged in wrongdoing. It has described all of the allegations of unlawful information gathering as \u201clurid\u201d and \u201cpreposterous\u201d.<\/p>\n Portley-Hanks alleged that the publisher tried to conceal its continued use of private investigators by asking him to change his email address, to make it appear that he was a Hollywood reporter.<\/p>\n He also alleged that on one occasion he was used as part of a chain to make a payment to a serving police officer for documents relating to Jeffrey Epstein. This is denied by ANL.<\/p>\n While Portley-Hanks said he thought he carried out some work in relation to John, Hurley and Prince Harry<\/a>, he said he could not remember anything specific.<\/p>\n \u201cI recall that I did stuff for the Mail on Sunday and Daily Mail in relation to Prince Harry,\u201d he said in a written submission. \u201cI know that I did unlawful stuff on him, but I cannot recall what exactly.<\/p>\n