The Far-Right Activist Exploiting a Companies House Loophole to Pose as Big Name Businesses

A new far-right group staged rallies in Leeds, Elgin and Lincolnshire last month to protest against the housing of migrants and refugees. As the protests gained traction on social media, one far-right activist on Twitter made a number of posts using pictures of the events and asking for donations to “fund direct action and protests against the invasion”. 

Seemingly unconnected to those who had organised the protests, other users questioned the identity and political allegiances of the activist, whose posts were shared with over 12,000 followers.

A Byline Times investigation can now reveal the man to be Robert Simpson, a 52-year-old BNP activist and vigilante paedophile hunter who, for the last two years, has taken advantage of a Companies House loophole to run multiple shell companies using the names of major brands to raise money for far-right causes.

In September 2020 the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy stated that there were plans in place to ensure no company could be registered until the identity of the directors had been verified.

The bill that will make this law is still passing through Parliament, which may go some way to explain why Simpson has been able to set up eleven separate businesses using the names of well-known brands including Shein, Amazon and Reuters.

Established in 2021, each of Simpson’s big-name “businesses” ran for a year before their names were changed to reference the far right. Consequently, “Shein” became NF League Ltd (a reference to the National Front), “Amazon” operates as C18 Services (a nod to violent neo-Nazi group Combat 18) and “PD Ports Global Group” now goes by the name NF 14/88 League (an apparent reference to the 14 words of neo-Nazi terrorist David Lane and alphabet code for the letters HH – Heil Hitler).

His other companies operate under official-sounding names which bear a passing resemblance to established groups, i.e. “Knights Templar International Ltd” and the “Muslim Order of the UK” – which is listed as a “religious organisation” and applied to be struck off the register a month ago. Only his online shop – Simpsons of Chelsea – appears to be an original enterprise. To-date, none of them have ever filed accounts.

Nine of Simpson’s companies are registered to an address in Felixstowe, but a search of the electoral roll revealed no listed tenants on the corresponding dates. The other two are registered to a flat in Dumfries, which also has no record of Simpson (or anyone else) as a tenant at the time they were registered. 

This is not the first time that Companies House has failed to catch a fake business. In February last year open Democracy revealed that the site was home to businesses whose directors included Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Adolf Tooth Fairy Hitler. In August last year, a sting operation conducted by media non-profit group The Citizens revealed the ease with which they were able to set up a completely fake company with a director who did not exist.

EXCLUSIVE

Majority of English Channel Migrants Fleeing Armed Violence, Study Reveals

Well over half the recent migrants come from the top 15 countries globally hardest hit by explosive weaponry

Iain Overton

When Byline Times approached Companies House for comment, a representative linked us to their Service Information document which states that “We carry out basic checks on documents received to make sure that they have been fully completed and signed, but we do not have the statutory power or capability to verify the accuracy of the information that companies send to us.

“The fact that the information has been placed on the public record should not be taken to indicate that Companies House has verified or validated it in any way.” 

Operating from multiple outlets appears to be something of a hobby for Simpson, whose activism is spread across seven Twitter accounts, three Facebook profiles and fourteen websites. His Twitter accounts variously claim him to be a member of the New British Union and National Front, while archived links to his earlier accounts reveal support for the EDL, SDL and Northern Infidels.

Activity on his oldest Twitter account, however, shows his main affiliation to be to the BNP and a link posted in 2014 lists him as their top Online Activist – an honour bestowed upon whoever posted the most affiliate links to the BNP website in a given time period. 

The not-so-sad demise of the BNP appears to have forced Simpson to branch out and claim membership of other groups. As such, his Facebook friends now include well-known far right activists Amanda Smith (aka Yorkshire Rose) who has links to Patriotic Alternative and Alek Yerbury, who organised the Leeds and Elgin protests with the aim of uniting the far right and taking on the unions. 

Normalising Hate: New Report Highlights the Spread of Anti-Drag Sentiment in the UK

Far right groups have infiltrated anti-LGBTQ+ protests, and are influencing government policy a new report reveals

Katherine Denkinson

Ostensibly raising money for the same cause, Simpson regularly shares links on both Twitter and Facebook to a PayPal account in the name of Templars Ancient Order Ltd. A further search of his Twitter accounts led us to the website for his shop, Simpsons of Chelsea, which hosts a PayPal donations link to a “homeless charity”. This too led to the PayPal for the Templars Ancient Order but appears to have been recently deactivated. 

A search of his IP address revealed thirteen other websites corresponding to his various businesses, all of which host PayPal links to related donation accounts. Whilst some of these claim to be for legitimate causes (e.g. Christian Aid),  others are blatantly linked to the far right and most led to donation pages named “Templars Ancient Order” with different sub-headings (E.g.Protecting the Future of the White Race).

It is unknown how much money Simpson has raised this way, but comments on his Twitter and Facebook accounts show that followers have donated and his posts appear popular within the growing far-right movement on both platforms.

It is no secret that the far right is attempting to boost their numbers and recent work by Hope Not Hate highlighted the role of Twitter in this, following Musk’s decision to allow far-right figureheads such as Britain First back onto the platform. Research from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue earlier this year also found that antisemitic content on the platform had skyrocketed since Musk took over and our own searches revealed a staggering number of neo-Nazi accounts now in operation.

Byline Times brought Simpson’s activities to the attention of PayPal, who told us that “For privacy reasons, we cannot comment on individual customers. We carefully assess account activity against our Acceptable Use Policy and take appropriate action if policy violations are found.” Of the nine accounts we presented to PayPal, two are no longer in operation but links to others, including those on the “Church of England” and Combat 18 websites, remain active.

We also approached Simpson for comment, asking about the nature of his businesses and his political affiliations, but he has yet to respond.