Over the last year the UK has launched one of its most significant crackdowns yet on the misuse of its corporate system, resulting in thousands of companies being struck off the Companies House register.
Coordinated by the National Economic Crime Centre, the operation targeted high risk company formations, registered office addresses, and service providers suspected of facilitating money laundering and fraud. It brought together a formidable coalition of agencies including Companies House, the National Crime Agency, HM Revenue & Customs, The Insolvency Service, the Financial Conduct Authority, the Home Office, and UK police forces, to disrupt criminals exploiting loopholes in the UK’s corporate system.
During an intense two day enforcement drive, police and HMRC officers visited multiple high risk addresses across the country. They uncovered company formation agents failing to comply with the Companies Act 2006 and identified hundreds of businesses registered at single addresses with no genuine trading activity. One London address alone was found to host between 4,000 and 5,000 registered companies, many based overseas.
The results of the operation are striking:
- Over 11,500 companies removed from the Companies House register
- Key individuals barred from further company registrations
- Three high risk service providers closed, with 27 more facing enforcement action
- Significant criminal property identified for civil recovery
This is part of a wider government drive to tighten corporate transparency under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act, with new ID checks and stricter rules on service providers, such as ID verification for company directors and tighter regulation of authorised service providers. The aim is to prevent the misuse of UK registered companies by criminals at home and abroad.
The UK’s corporate system is one of the most open and business friendly in the world, but that openness has made it a target for exploitation. By combining intelligence, enforcement, and legislative reform, the government is taking major strides to ensure that UK companies remain a force for legitimate enterprise, not a vehicle for crime.
At CRO, we ensure we are compliant with the current HMRC money laundering regulations to assist these agencies in managing and mitigating risks, We request relevant identification documents where necessary and have recently implemented our IDV service in accordance with new government regulations to verify all directors and PSC’s of a company. If you would like more information on our IDV and AML compliance services please contact Alice Spencer – [email protected].
For further information on the ECCTA crack down please follow the below links:
National Crime Agency
The Insolvency Service
