Those who regularly follow the trials and tribulations the grifts, and the general unsavoury antics of Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (aka Tommy Robinson) will be familiar with a number of his close associates. Collectively known as #teamtommy these bigots are prolific on social media, disseminating propaganda on his behalf and generally bigging him up as the second coming.
Mainly of the male variety, the team also comprises a small dedicated circle of mature women who take the hero worship beyond sycophantic levels. These women are usually in attendance at his demos and events clad in stewarding hi-vis jackets and salivating over him on various online platforms.
One in particular has been brought to our attention by disgruntled ‘secret sources’, not only for her unswerving adulation of the diminutive career criminal and for being a part of #teamtommy, but also because she was convicted and jailed for 4 years for benefit fraud and money laundering in 2010.
This was a sustained organised operation over two years to the tune of £250,000-£500,000. Yes, you read that correctly, half a million pounds worth of taxpayers cash illegally obtained by a gang of unemployed benefit claimants and squandered away by this #teamtommy member and her accomplices. Staggeringly, this individual was charged with being the ringleader of this operation (which involved eight others, including her late father, Keith Taylor).
Step forward Donna Sexton.
Those with long memories will be familiar with Sexton and her support of Yaxley-Lennon and may recall she is not the sharpest tool in the box, hence why it was a surprise to see her tagged as the mastermind of the operation! However criminals who get caught are not that clever and Sexton herself was particularly stupid to think she could get away with such a staggering amount of fraud whilst already on the radar of HMRC.
The details in this Mirror article (below) show that false tax credit claims were made for non-existent disabled children (thus taking resources away from those families in genuine need with vulnerable children) and also the hijacking of stolen identities, including those of dead people.
Note that the article states that Donna Connolly and her father alone raked in £250,000.
The Mirror reports on Donna Sexton (nee Connolly and her “Vulture” family.
This Echo News article states the conspiracy was a £500.000 sting with, presumably the rest of the frauduent funds going to the other seven co conspirators.
Echo News reports on the jailing of Sexton for benefit fraud.
Sexton’s then partner protested (whilst sat among some of the spoils of the ill gotten gains) with the incredible claim that Sexton had saved her wages from a previous job as an off licence manager and the fraud accusation was a conspiracy to convict her.
So how do we get from Sexton to Connolly?
Born Donna Marie Taylor, she married one Paul Connolly then (presumably after divorcing him) took the name of her most recent long term partner, Lee Sexton. After release from prison adopting a name change would appear to be a prudent move regardless of marital status.
Donna Sexton/Connolly’s Linked in profile can be viewed here
She lists a period of working for Timpsons during the time she was in prison. Timpsons happen to run the largest offender training scheme in the UK for both prisoners and ex convicts.
Sexton also lists a period of work, previous to her unemployment as a deputy manager at a booze outlet, which was confirmed by her former partner at the time of her conviction. Her partner, Lee Sexton also appears on her Linked In profile. The Southend address is confirmed by both sources and thanks to one member of Sexton’s clan who appears to be ignorant of Facebook privacy we have been able to link her picture to the woman we know as Donna Sexton.
We traced the Facebook accounts of Keith Taylor and Donna Connelly and found a picture of Taylor that matches the photo published in the press and the link to Donna who is also pictured on his Facebook. This confirms beyond any doubt that Donna Taylor/Connelly/Sexton is the woman convicted of benefit fraud and money laundering.
In keeping with the hypocrisy of their rhetoric. Yaxley-Lennon and #TeamTommy continually berate and label hard working immigrants as benefit scroungers and tar those on the left with the same brush. Yet here we have one of his own, unemployed at the time, living off the state, and convicted of both benefit fraud and money laundering. Not forgetting Yaxley-Lennon himself has also done time for mortgage fraud which was small potatoes of £160,000 compared to the amount Donna screwed the system for.
Prior to that Yaxley-Lennon’s wife was also arrested on tax evasion and money laundering charges relating to his sunbed business, and Yaxley-Lennon was later ordered to repay £125,000 in tax. As the Huffpost published:
In September 2010, Robinson’s wife was arrested for tax evasion and money laundering. “Overnight every debit card was cancelled and my bank account was closed until two months ago (October, 2015),” Robinson said.Initially, Robinson said, police focused on the takings from his sunbed shop, about £2,000 a week – £1500 paid in cash, the remainder through credit card transactions. Robinson said he used SolarTrack, a system that tracks every sunbed session, so he had “every receipt from the shop four-five bin liners worth in the garage”. After police analysed the receipts, Robinson claims, it turned out “by a coupla quid, I hadn’t declared enough… the fucken pricks.” The amount, he estimated was about “two grand”, because he had taken £100 out of the till on the odd occasion over five years. Detectives, Robinson claimed then moved on, focusing instead on his accounts as a whole. They concluded he owed £137,000 in tax – “they were bent as fuck in what they did”. The case went to court, and Robinson says he was found not guilty. He was later, however, ordered to repay £125,000.
For avoidance of any doubt as to Donna Sexton’s links to #teamtommy and her various names over the years here are some screenshots featuring her with Yaxley-Lennon and other team members and one of her own Facebook profiles under her maiden name and married name.
Note prolific #teamtommy member ‘Jack Dawkins’ appears in the photographs several times. Resisting Hate will be publishing a further piece on him shortly exploring his links to Donna Sexton and her huge extended family linking the North East and the South East.
Also note that the Dawkins account claims he is barred from using PayPal services and that as a result of this he channels his funding via other accounts, the most recent being Donna Sexton’s account, a convicted benefit fraudster and money launderer whose partner at the time stated:
“She never made a dodgy claim. She let other people use her bank account and she would pay the people out of a banker’s draft.“It was a conspiracy by other people involved.”
We hope that those who support Yaxley-Lennon are as appalled as we are that he has a close team member who stole thousands from the state and start asking questions about where their donations are going. They need to think about how #teamtommy members are able to seemingly spend all their time on social media instead of going out to work to pay the bills like the rest of us do. Not forgetting the tax and NI contributions we all make which were abused by Sexton to fund her criminal lifestyle.
Oh and #teamtommy Angels. Really?
Background in Investigative journalism. Mum. Christian. I’m better than nobody and nobody is better than me.
[…] and intimidating Tommy wasn’t enough to pee on their chips there’s the publishing of an article by Resisting Hate featuring Donna Sexton (a volunteer for Tommy), it’s basically saying she has a conviction for fraud. Not good optics, especially when […]