A £435,000 donation to the DUP from a pro-Brexit group was not reported to the Electoral Commission, it has been confirmed.

The BBC has reported that Scottish unionist funding organisation Constitutional Research Council (CRC) has been fined £6,000 for failing to report the donation.

It was a record fine by the Electoral Commission.

However the commission accepted that the donation and its donors were permissible.

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CRC is chaired by Scottish Conservative Richard Cook, but the identities of those who made donations to the party remain unknown.

Following an investigation, the Electoral Commission ruled that there was "no reasonable excuse" for failing to report it, along with other political contributions and gifts received.

The DUP received the donation during the Brexit referendum campaign and spent £282,000 of the money on an advert in the Metro newspaper.

A BBC NI Spotlight programme asked questions about whether the DUP incurred joint spending with other EU referendum campaigners but did not declare it under a common plan.

Under Electoral Commission rules, groups are not allowed to work together in order to get around funding limits.

The DUP has denied wrongdoing and insisted it acted within electoral law. It said yesterday that it had nothing to add to previous comments on the matter.

Following the airing of the documentary in June, the Electoral Commission requested further evidence from BBC NI but were told there was no other significant information other than what was in the programme.

In August, the Electoral Commission announced that there were "no grounds" for an investigation into the issue.

Details of the fine were contained in new correspondence from the Electoral Commission released by the Good Law Project, the BBC reported.

The group had been seeking a judicial review over the commission's refusal not to probe the allegations made on Spotlight.

Belfast Telegraph