19 Dec, 2022 @ 17:15
3 mins read

Far-right leader Tommy Robinson flouts English football ban to attend second division match in Spain

Tommy Robinson Court Case
Tommy Robinson leaves the Royal Courts Of Justice in London. He is to give evidence about his finances after he lost a libel case brought by a Syrian teenager Jamal Hijazi. Picture date: Thursday June 9, 2022.

Far-right thug Stephen Yaxley-Lennon has boasted of attending a football match in Spain, despite being banned from attending ‘all regulated football matches, home and abroad’ until 2023.

The 40-year-old anti-Islam activist, better known by the alias Tommy Robinson, posted a video to his Telegram channel brazenly admitting he was attending a game in Spain because he was banned from doing so ‘in England’.

“When you’re banned from football in England, you’ve got to become a scarfer,” he says with the sun streaming in behind him. 

A scarfer is a slang term for a football fan who is not involved in hooliganism.

“Tenerife are playing tonight. We are going to go and f*** up Andorra,” he adds.

The convicted fraudster was given a four year banning order after being caught on camera punching a fellow England fan to the ground outside a stadium before a match.

The offence took place just before the League of Nations football match between England and Holland in the Portuguese city of Guimaraes in 2019.

The banning order was brought by Bedfordshire Police, the former English Defence League leader’s local force, for ‘causing or contributing to violence’ at a football match.

Robinson has had to miss all England’s recent tournament heroics, including in Qatar 2022, and was also ordered to pay £3,600 in court costs.

Tommy Robinson Court Case
COURTING TROUBLE: Tommy Robinson pictured outside the Royal Courts Of Justice in London on June 9, 2022, boasted of attending a Spanish league match despite receiving a football ban in England. Credit: Cordon Press

Sources at Cheshire Police, which runs the Football Policing Unit, told the Olive Press that Yaxley-Lennon was not in breach of his banning order, so long as he only attended games that ‘do not involve club or international teams from this country.’

The match between Tenerife and Andora on Friday, in Spain’s second division, finished 1-1, without trouble.

The fraudster grabbed headlines in Spain two years ago when he claimed, and then denied, that he was moving his family to the Costa del Sol due to ‘safety concerns.’

The diminutive Luton man has courted controversy since 2005 and has various convictions to his name as well as a number of jail sentences.

Tommy Robinson 1
IN COURT AGAIN: Stephen Yaxley-Lennon

Some are for fraud, others are related to his far-right activism and anti-Muslim and anti-refugee stance.

He claimed that he was relocating his entire family to the Marbella area of Costa del Sol in July 2020, due to pressure and alleged threats to his family – although none of the threats were proven.

A leading Spanish academic openly criticised Yaxley-Lennon’s double-standards for wanting to settle here as an immigrant.

David Casarejos, who is President of the Council of Spanish Residents in the north of the UK, said it was curious that ‘someone who would expel all the refugees from the UK and then apparently run to Spain for refuge.’

The football banning order adds to his long list of previous misdemeanours.

Yaxley-Lennon’s criminal record (courtesy of TommyRobinsonFacts.com)

2005 – Assault

Assault occasioning actual bodily harm, for which he was sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment, and assault with intent to resist arrest, for which he received a concurrent term of three months.

2010 – Assaulting a police officer

He was charged with assaulting a police officer during clashes at a poppy burning protest.

2011 – Rooftop protest

Yaxley-Lennon and EDL co-founder Kevin Carroll flew to Zurich to protest on the roof of a FIFA building that England were not allowed to wear poppies on their kit because of FIFA’s political symbol ban. They were fined £3,000 for their troubles.

2011 – Assault

Convicted of assault for an attack at an EDL march in Blackburn.

2011 – Riot

Guilty of leading a brawl that included 100 Luton Town football fans into a fight with Newport County fans. Fans were heard chanting ‘EDL till I die.’ He was given a suspended 12-month prison sentence and banned from Luton football matches for 3 years.

2013 – Identity Fraud

‘Robinson’ was jailed for 10 months for travelling to the USA on his friend’s passport. He admitted the charge of possession of a false identity document with improper intention. The passport Robinson used was under the name of Andrew McMaster. Yaxley-Lennon has also used the name Wayne King in the past.

2014 – Mortgage Fraud

Yaxley-Lennon was sentenced to prison for 18 months for committing mortgage fraud with the crime dating back to 2009. After pleading guilty in November 2013 to committing £160,000 worth of mortgage fraud Robinson was sentenced at St Albans Crown Court.

2017 – Contempt of Court #1

He was given a 3 month suspended sentence after he admitted a contempt of court charge for attempting to photograph a juvenile defendant in a court case whilst having no right to do so. Court security had told Robinson not to film in and around the court as it would lead to his arrest.

2018 – Contempt of Court #2

‘Robinson’ was given a 13-month sentence for contempt of court. He was arrested after Facebook live streaming outside Leeds Crown Court for an hour despite there being reporting restrictions on the case. Because he had a suspended sentence for the same crime the judge sentenced Robinson to 13 months in prison. Robinson pleaded guilty but was later released on bail after winning an appeal.

Walter Finch

Walter - or Walt to most people - is a former and sometimes still photographer and filmmaker who likes to dig under the surface.
A NCTJ-trained journalist, he came to the Costa del Sol - Gibraltar hotspot from the Daily Mail in 2022 to report on organised crime, corruption, financial fraud and a little bit of whatever is going on.
Got a story? walter@theolivepress.es
@waltfinc

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