I didn’t really know where to put this so I thought I would start a new thread. As a thread title I think it may have legs.
I have been amusing myself today reading about Tommy Robinson,aka Stephen Yaxley-Lennon and his latest travails.He has declared himself bankrupt, despite receiving hundreds of thousands of pounds in donations and funding. The Independent has seen financial documents indicating the huge scale of funding given to Robinson since 2018. In just two months he received 425,000 in donations from his supporters, documents suggest. He is also believed to have raised a significantly larger amount after being jailed for contempt of court in May 2018, though an American group called Middle East Forum, (Run by a very unsavoury American/Israeli), who are a white supremacist, anti Muslim group, funded his defence and paid all his legal costs.
Former employees are now raising questions about where the money from fundraising campaigns went. After 10,000 was donated for a protest called the “Day For Freedom”, a video producer working for Robinson claimed money he requested for equipment and to cover overheads never materialised, although he witnessed the transfer of large sums of money from a crowdfunding page into Robinson’s business account. He told The Independent that after noticing the withdrawal of 33,000 in donations, he asked what the money was being used for. He says he was told by Robinson that he had"mates I’ve got to pay back" for “seshes”. “We realised that he was withdrawing huge amounts in cash from a business account, and just giving it to friends who were selling him coke and who he owed for nights out”.“That wasn’t what we signed up for when we told our supporters that we needed it for kit, expenses,transport, security and staff costs”. Other employees complained of not being properly renumerated while working for Robinson. They claimed that when drunk, Robinson would boast of being “Fucking loaded”, and making “mad money”, while making lavish purchases, including a new car and designer clothes.
His family home, a large property, situated in an upmarket Bedfordshire village which he claims to have built himself, was on the market for 900,000 and sold for just under that…
While living there, Robinson continued asking supporters for money to fund his work, and his website’s e mail address was flooded with messages from well- wishers.
“I have just donated 20 pound to your cause Tommy, sorry I can’t afford any more as I am only on minimum wage,” one guy wrote in an e mail seen by The Independent. Another supporter wrote, “I haven’t got much, but when I saw you needed kit and a new camera, I donated 50 pounds to your website”. Oh deary deary me!
“Tommy needs your help”, read a message on his website. “Tommy fights for us all, the burden is too great for one man to carry, maybe you can help alleviate that burden”. Hahaha.
From another employee, “I remember him going to a cashpoint and withdrawing 500 pound and being like,‘That’s for later’, and he just carried on doing it”. “It went on coke habits, prostitutes, stuff like that, and his supporters thought it was going to kids who were victims of grooming, security and the like”.
Robinson denies all the claims and told The Independent,“I have the utmost respect for my supporters and have never behaved in a dishonest way”.
Good luck with that one Tommy Boy, although it must have been like taking candy off a baby in the present climate.
