Address hijacking: Woman 'left panicked' as bogus firm uses her address

A woman in the City of London has been left in "complete panic" after her home address was used to register a company she had never heard of.

The firm, which purported to sell sports equipment online, registered on Companies House using Maggie Upton's residential address in September.

She has called for greater protections to be put in place, as it was easier to register an address than remove it.

Companies House said new powers will clamp down on the practice.

Ms Upton first discovered the registration when she received a letter addressed to the company.

"It just so happened my neighbour was in at the time and he said 'let's have a look on Companies House', and it was registered at my address on 4 September," she said.

When they contacted Companies House, they were told a form needed to be filled out and provide proof that it was Ms Upton's address, such as a utility bill.

Ms Upton said: "Well he didn't have to prove where he lived to start the company off, it's just that easy."

BBC London called the number listed on the company's website a number of times with no answer.

Graham Barrow, the director of the Dark Money Files project on financial crime, told BBC London that the process of de-registering an address is much more onerous than registering in the first place.

It costs £12 to register a business with no proof required that the associated address is legitimate, Mr Barrow said.

Ms Upton contacted the police and Action Fraud, but she said what has happened is not yet considered a crime.

"It's just a complete panic thinking you can't do anything about it, you're just reliant on Companies House to sort it out but they [the fraudulent company] could be doing anything in the meantime and maybe getting me into debt," she said.

"I don't sleep that well and it's there when as soon as you wake up and buzzing around your head."

BBC London has identified a number of other addresses being falsely registered, including a residential flat in central London with 4,000 businesses registered with it on Companies House.

Ms Upton is waiting for Companies House to de-register her address.

The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act, which received royal assent on Friday, will give Companies House greater powers to remove invalid registered office addresses.

Commenting on the law coming into force, business minister Kevin Hollinrake said: "These reforms will remove the smoke and mirrors around companies hiding behind false identities [and] provide further protection to the public from companies fraudulently using their addresses."

A Companies House spokesperson added they look forward to using the powers to "act more quickly if people tell us their personal information has been used on the register without their consent".

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