In three months more than eighty fake companies have been registered to properties in Henry Drive, Leigh-on-Sea, making it look like a thriving business hub specialising in wholesale clothing, with entrepreneurs from across Europe choosing it as their operations base. But the paperwork lies. Each business says it sells clothes and has a single company officer described as an ‘entrepreneur’ living in either Italy, Georgia, Germany, France or Morocco in dubious addresses like an empty Moroccan building lot or a French religious meeting hall. The mass registering of these firms is the work of criminal gangs using sham companies for money laundering or obtaining bank loans before shutting them down. Companies House charges £12 for registering an internet business or business merger. If the company’s paperwork is properly filed and signed and the fee paid, it must be registered.