Between four and five thousand companies at one address

In July 2025 the National Crime Agency announced that 11,500 UK companies had been struck off the register following a multi-agency operation with Companies House, HMRC, the Insolvency Service, the FCA, OPBAS, the Home Office and three police forces.

One detail from the operation: a single company had registered between 4,000 and 5,000 businesses at one address in London, while those businesses actually operated elsewhere in the UK and overseas. Officers also found no real business activity at eleven premises where thirty high-risk trust and company service providers were operating.

Some of those 11,500 held bank accounts. A struck-off company does not legally exist, but it can continue to instruct, invoice and receive funds for as long as nobody rechecks the register.