A former senior official in the British National Party was fined £200 yesterday and castigated by a district judge after he admitted leaking the far-right party’s membership list online.

Matt Single, 37, the BNP’s former security chief, was behind the disclosure of the names and addresses of 12,000 people, including a police officer who was consequently sacked. Single had been charged under the Data Protection Act.

The leak, last November, created fear among the thousands who were exposed as being card-carrying supporters of the party. More than 160 complaints were made to police about attacks on BNP members and their property. Some had white powder posted to them with letters saying that it was anthrax.

Single, who is married to another expelled party organiser, Sadie Graham, 30, was given a low fine because he is living on state benefits. The maximum penalty is £5,000. “The law exists to save people from such revenge attacks,” District Judge John Stobart said at Nottingham Magistrates’ Court.

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“It came as a surprise to me, as it will to many members of the party, that to do something as foolish and as criminally dangerous as you did will only incur a financial penalty.

“It comes as no surprise to me that somebody to do with an organisation that prides itself on Britishness is in fact living off the British people on jobseeker’s allowance and that is why the fine is so low as to be ridiculous.”

Single was ordered to pay £100 prosecution costs. Charges against Ms Graham were dropped and she was not in court. The investigation cost about £50,000.

Detective Sergeant Chris Reynolds said after the hearing that he was disappointed with the fine. “People were fearful for their safety. There was an arson attack on a vehicle, there were daubings and malicious communications,” he said. “It’s taken a great deal of work to get the case to court.”

The judge heard that Single began a relationship with Ms Graham when he was a party member. He was purged after a power struggle in the BNP and she gave him the information, which he released.

Nick Griffin, the BNP leader, said the leak was “a disgraceful act of treachery”.

When police raided Single’s home in Brinsley, Nottinghamshire, they found a laptop computer and two memory sticks, wrapped in cellophane and hidden at the bottom of a cereal box. Computer analysis linked the laptop to an online blog that listed the members.

Single was found by police in Rochford, Essex, threatening to harm himself. He claimed that he was “depressed and upset” after publicising the information on the internet. He later admitted to a police doctor that he had released the list.

Single and his wife now live in the South, but the judge upheld an order barring publication of the address.

John Walker, a spokesman for the BNP, said that some members were considering civil cases. “There have been some real victims in this case. People had their homes attacked and some people have lost their jobs,” he said.

Steve Bettley, a former police constable and driver to the Chief Constable of Merseyside, was sacked from the force for misconduct because of his membership of the party, but is appealing against his dismissal, saying that he had been enrolled without his knowledge.

The party won 900,000 votes at the European elections in June, winning two seats in the European Parliament.

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