A blogger who uploaded a leaked email containing private information about 83,000 Christchurch homeowners has been found guilty of contempt and fined $5000.
Information Marc Krieger published under the name EQC Truths contained estimates for claims and was originally sent inadvertently by an EQC employee to earthquake repair contractor Bryan Staples last year.
Readers of Krieger's blog were told they could access their information by contacting him or Staples.
Krieger breached an injunction order put in place to stop further disclosure of the data when he published hyperlinks to other websites.
Justice Pankhurst said on Monday he found it difficult to judge the harm caused by that disclosure.
The judge said as EQC doesn't have a competitive tender process, repair contractors would have been unlikely to undercut the estimates if they found out what they were.