Nick Griffin disgraced

Clive Jefferson, the thug at the centre of Nick Griffin's criminal frauds exposed by the BBC.

Clive Jefferson, the thug at the centre of Nick Griffin's criminal frauds exposed by the BBC.

On 10th October the BBC’s Panorama – the world’s longest running television current affairs programme – exposed Nick Griffin’s criminality to an audience of millions.  No British political leader in history has been so comprehensively discredited.  The Griffin cult – which succeeded in fooling many hundreds of good nationalist activists and thousands of voters at various stages during the last decade – is over.

Nick Griffin will never be trusted again – by nationalist activists or by the wider electorate.

Nick Griffin will never be trusted again – by nationalist activists or by the wider electorate.

Prof. Michael Power of the London School of Economics told Panorama: “Technically the party is insolvent.”  All that remains is to find out who catches Griffin first: the police; the European Parliament fraud squad; court bailiffs; or friends and family of his aggrieved victims, including a lady from Ulster interviewed by the BBC who was effectively kidnapped by Griffin’s thugs.

Dave Hannam, former BNP Treasurer, who exposed to the BBC Nick Griffin's emails ordering criminal fraud, but who tragically died a week before the broadcast.

Dave Hannam, former BNP Treasurer, who exposed to the BBC Nick Griffin's emails ordering criminal fraud, but who tragically died a week before the broadcast.

To begin where the programme ended: former BNP Treasurer Dave Hannam, who died aged just 30 a week ago, had revealed to the programme makers that Nick Griffin ordered him to fake an invoice.  The BNP had been left with a surplus of £4,000 following a trip to Brussels funded by the European Parliament.  Obviously this £4,000 of taxpayers money would have to be returned once receipts were submitted.  So Griffin ordered Dave Hannam to make up completely invented costs for security and organisation to cover this £4,000.

Panorama broadcast an email from Griffin to Hannam dating from July 2010 which amounted to an instruction to commit a criminal fraud against the taxpayer.

Earlier in the programme Jim Dowson, the professional Ulster-based fundraiser who was hired by Nick Griffin to boost BNP finances, revealed how he had raised hundreds of thousands of pounds for the party – which will leave many long suffering party activists wondering just where did the money go?

Jim Dowson gave the BBC extensive details of the BNP's fundraising operations, and of his ultimate disgust at Nick Griffin's criminality.

Jim Dowson gave the BBC extensive details of the BNP's fundraising operations, and explained his ultimate disgust at Nick Griffin's criminality.

“He’s a wily old boy, Mr Griffin,” said Jim Dowson. “He could see right away this is a potential gold mine.  We can unleash hundreds and hundreds of thousands of pounds – if not millions – from doing this.”

One of the most famous examples of this fundraising was the appeal to buy the so-called ‘Truth Truck’, which Griffin bought from Dowson himself for just under £20,000 but for which about £170,000 was raised.  By 2009 (the last full year of Dowson fundraising) BNP income had risen to almost £2 million.

Yet the party’s accounts for that year (submitted six months late at the start of 2011) are dismissed by the BNP’s own auditors with the words:
“they cannot be classed as ‘true and fair’ under the usual definition of that term.”

Three donations of above £5,000 were not recorded in the 2009 accounts, according to Panorama.

Former BNP Treasurer John Walker showed the BBC accounts submitted by the BNP that included a fictitious payment to him of almost £40,000.  He described BNP excuses for accounting failures as "an absolute lie".

Former BNP Treasurer John Walker showed the BBC accounts submitted by the BNP that included a fictitious payment to him of almost £40,000. He described BNP excuses for accounting failures as "an absolute lie".

Former BNP Treasurer John Walker told Panorama that the BNP’s explanation of accounting problems – that they had only just introduced computerised accounting – was “an absolute lie”.  He added that another gross deception in the accounts was a false statement that he had been paid £37,450.  This was completely untrue, said John Walker:  “Obviously they couldn’t account for a large sum of money and they had to put it somewhere.”

Another Griffin fraud against his own members and supporters was described by former BNP webmaster Simon Bennett.  When the party website was targeted by a so-called “denial of service attack” – a fairly common occurrence for controversial sites – Griffin sent out an urgent appeal to raise £5,000 for remedial technical work, even though in reality this work cost less than £200.

The next interviewee was Alistair Barbour from Carlisle, who had been recruited to Griffin’s European parliamentary staff in 2009.  Mr Barbour told Panorama that while paid by the taxpayer to carry out parliamentary business he had in fact spent all his working hours on “party work” – even though the BBC interviewer reminded him: “But you’re not allowed to do that.”

Alistair Barbour explained how his work in Nick Griffin's parliamentary office – paid for by the taxpayer – amounted to working out how much expenses could be claimed from the European Union.

Alistair Barbour explained how his work in Nick Griffin's parliamentary office – paid for by the taxpayer – amounted to working out how much expenses could be claimed from the European Union.

Mr Barbour concluded: “This is what it was all about: party work, and trying to figure out what expenses we could get out of the European Union.”

A particularly effective witness deployed by Panorama was Marion Thomas, who had run the Belfast office.  She explained that Griffin’s infamous enforcer Clive Jefferson had ordered her to stamp a printing invoice for Romac Press as “paid”, even though it had not been paid.  (Romac Press is still owed £45,000 by the BNP and has now gone out of business.)  This is an especially serious criminal fraud, because electoral law states that all invoices for election material must be settled within a strict deadline.

Mrs Thomas had strongly objected to carrying out this fraud, telling her BNP superiors: “You cannot do that.  That is fraud.”

Richard Barnbrook was Griffin's 2010 election agent in Barking and was ordered to submit fraudulent accounts.

Richard Barnbrook was Griffin's 2010 election agent in Barking and was ordered to submit fraudulent accounts.

Additional similar frauds were committed by Richard Barnbrook, Nick Griffin’s 2010 election agent in Barking, acting on Griffin’s orders to claim that printing bills with another company in Durham had been settled, when once again they had not been.

Nick Griffin’s criminality even reached the Arthur Daley style fraud of siphoning off electricity from his taxpayer funded European headquarters into his own party offices next door!

Like any fraud of course, Griffin’s couldn’t go on for ever.  Jim Dowson told Panorama: “If you milk your donors too hard, they’ll stop producing the milk – it’s as simple as that.”

And when the frauds began to unravel, the criminal behaviour of the Griffin cabal became even more vicious.  After Jim Dowson turned his back on the BNP last year, three BNP officials were sent to the small town of Comber, Co Down, to hand over some money that was owed to him and collect some BNP office equipment in return.  In one of Panorama‘s most shocking revelations, Marion Thomas (Jim Dowson’s sister-in-law and office manager) told how instead of handing over the cash, these three Griffinites locked her inside a lorry and held her hostage.

Marion Thomas – BNP office manager – was also ordered to produce fake invoices and was later kidnapped by Griffin's thugs.

Marion Thomas – BNP office manager – was also ordered to produce fake invoices and was later kidnapped by Griffin's thugs.

Mrs Thomas was only released after Jim Dowson telephoned Griffin and remonstrated about the gangster-like behaviour of his employees.  She told Panorama that she now viewed Griffin and his cronies as “scum”.

Right on cue, the Griffinites demonstrated their scumminess in front of Panorama‘s cameras, staging a ludicrous ambush of the production team in which Griffin read out an irrelevant statement in the style of Stalinist prosecutor Vyshinsky, then fled the room leaving the floor to his deputy Simon Darby and chief thug Clive Jefferson.  The result has to be seen to be believed: providing the BBC with the type of stereotypical footage of thugs trying to intimidate journalists, as seen a thousand times in programmes such as The Cook Report.

Panorama ended with the rhetorical question: “Will money rather than racism spell the end of Nick Griffin’s British National Party?”

The answer is already clear to most well-informed nationalists.  Griffinism is over.  At a series of meetings this month, including last weekend’s John Tyndall Memorial event in Preston, and the forthcoming BNP Ideas conference on 22nd October, a plan for the future of our movement will be mapped out.  A decade of Griffinite misrule has ended in the most public and total disgrace ever suffered by a British political leader.

British nationalists are now uniting to build a post-Griffin movement

British nationalists are now uniting to build a post-Griffin movement

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