Court case coming up for Lib Dems re: Michael Brown

The Observer reports:

The Liberal Democrats are facing an embarrassing High Court battle with a lawyer who says that the party wrongly accepted £632,000 of his money as part of a donation. Robert Mann, 60, claims that the party failed to carry out adequate checks on the money which was received as part of a £2.4m gift from the financier Michael Brown.

...A Liberal Democrat official confirmed that the party had received notification from Mann's solicitors that the money will be pursued this week through the High Court. A party spokesman said: 'All our donations from 5th Avenue Partners were received in good faith and were properly spent on the general election campaign. Our auditors have seen our legal advice on this matter and confirmed that we do not need to make provision in relation to this matter.'

This is a most unsavoury affair. There appears to perhaps be a bit of grandstanding going on. If the party gave the money back would that not be tantamount to an admission of guilt which doesn't apply?

It is worth remembering this previous statement from the Electoral Commission (as well as this and this from their press release archive):

The Electoral Commission has previously made clear its view that it was reasonable for the Liberal Democrats - based on the information available to them at the time - to regard the donations they received from 5th Avenue Partners Ltd in 2005, totalling just over £2.4m, as permissible. It remains the Commissions view that the Liberal Democrats acted in good faith at that time, and the Commission is not re-opening the question of whether the party or its officers failed to carry out sufficient checks into the permissibility of the donations.
Nevertheless, we have always said that if any additional information that has a bearing on the permissibility of the donations comes to light, for example as a result of the ongoing police investigation or legal proceedings relating to the affairs of 5th Avenue, we would consider the matter further.