England: Six jailed for membership of banned neo-Nazi group National Action

Leicester man Daniel Bogunovic, 27, and Oxfordshire couple Adam Thomas, 22, and Claudia Patatas, 38, were found guilty last month.

Stockport man Joel Wilmore, 24, Wolverhampton man Darren Fletcher, 28, and Cambridge man Nathan Pryke, 27, all previously admitted their membership of the group.

Bogunovic was sentenced to six years and four months, Thomas to six-and-a-half years and Patatas was given five years. Wilmore was sentenced to five years and 10 months, Fletcher given three years and four months and Pryke given five years and five months.

All six were arrested and charged in January with being concerned in the commission, preparation and instigation of acts of terrorism under section 41 of the Terrorism Act 2000, namely on suspicion of being a member of a proscribed organisation contrary to section 11 of the Act.

Thomas and Wilmore were found guilty of possessing information of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism contrary to section 58 of 2000 Act and were both given two-and-a-half year sentences to run concurrently.

Bogunovic was found guilty of inciting racial hatred under section 18(1) of the Public Order Act 1986 after National Action stickers were found in the grounds of Aston University in 2016.

Fletcher pleaded guilty to five breaches of his criminal anti-social behaviour order and will serve a further sentence of one year and eight months following his sentence for NA membership.

Detective Chief Superintendent Matt Ward, head of West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit (WMCTU), said: “These sentences are the culmination of two years of painstaking work in the West Midlands and across the country to recognise and understand the threat of National Action.

“These individuals were not simply racist fantasists; we now know they were a dangerous, well-structured organisation. Their aim was to spread neo-Nazi ideology by provoking a race war in the UK and they had spent years acquiring the skills to carry this out.

“They had researched how to make explosives, they had gathered weapons and they had a clear structure to radicalise others. Unchecked they would have inspired violence and spread hatred and fear across the West Midlands.”