First Santander now Kent Reliance Have Frozen The Accounts of the Brighton Trust, a Registered Charity

 In Order That We Can Meet Our Commitments to Grantees, Including the Al Tafawk Centre & Brighton’s Palestine House, I am asking you to contribute to Our Emergency Appeal

Is This a State Backed Bank Robbery?

  Emergency Appeal    THE BRIGHTON TRUST

https://chuffed.org/project/190193-emergency-appeal-the-brighton-trust

On 2^nd June Santander froze the bank accounts of The Brighton Trust, a registered charity. Eight days later they contacted me to explain that they couldn’t tell me why they had frozen them.

Not only did they freeze the accounts of the Brighton Trust but they froze the accounts of Brighton and Hove Unemployed Workers Centre, two personal accounts and an account belonging to my son, which I administer, via a Lasting Power of Attorney.

Debanked: How Regulations Are Hurting Innocent UK Bank Customers

Last Monday, Kent Reliance or One Savings Bank also froze accounts belonging to my family and also accounts containing money belonging to the Brighton Trust. Again they refused to say why they had frozen the accounts.

In the past two years I have been debanked by Nationwide building society (which contrary to belief is an anti-Palestinian bank), HSBC and First Direct. The only conclusion I can reach is that this is because I am being prosecuted under the Terrorism Act 2000 for allegedly inviting support for a proscribed organisation, Hamas.

These are not the first attacks on the Brighton Trust. In 2022 and again in 2025, the Charity Commission has conducted investigations of the Brighton Trust. These investigations were almost certainly triggered by Zionist charities such as UK Lawyers for Israel and/or the Campaign Against Antisemitism.

The freezing of our accounts is being done under either The Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (POCA) or The Terrorism Act 2000. It is most likely to be the latter however it is impossible to know for certain.

It would seem that some government agency, either the National Crime Agency or the Counter-Terror Police, is deliberately feeding false and malicious information to those I bank with informing them that I am involved in money laundering and/or terrorism financing.

I wrote to the NCA asking if they had anything to do with the bank closures and they wrote back to say they do not instruct banks as to what they do but it is clear that they do supply the misinformation that causes banks to freeze and debank people.

The use of ‘regulatory’ pretexts has been used by financial payment services such as Wise and Payoneer to completely cut off people in Gaza from their money. These are literally life and death decisions made by faceless and anonymous bureaucrats.

Banks are notoriously ‘risk averse’. They act first and ask questions later. Or rather, they don’t even bother asking questions. They either freeze or close accounts or both.

Ironically the increased use of money laundering legislation and counter-terrorism legislation has made no difference to criminal gangs but it has impacted on political groups and vulnerable people, which one suspects was the original intention.

When Nigel Farage had his accounts closed by the Royal Family’s banker, Coutts it was headline news but when ordinary people or campaigning groups have their accounts closed it is ignored.

The legal provisions are contained here.

We are not the only ones this has happened to. Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign has had £20,000 frozen by Unity Trust Bank, which is owned by the trade unions, for a year now.  So has Greater Manchester Friends of Palestine. This is in addition to debanking individual Palestine solidarity activists.

Both the National Crime Agency—answerable to the Home Office—and counter terrorism police declined to answer the Guardian’s query about which agency took the decision to freeze the GMFP’s bank account.

And then there is the decision of Lloyds Bank to freeze and debank The Canary, the radical alternative news organisation. This is a straightforward political decision by corrupt bankers. The Canary isn’t racist like Farage so the BBC and the rest of the media have had nothing to say.

We don’t know whether Lloyds is going to use ‘regulatory’ reasons as the pretext to debank The Canary but it may be that direct action will cause the bank to cough up since being polite has had little effect so far.

What is happening is that legislation passed for one purpose – terrorist financing or money laundering – is being used for entirely different purposes, namely to crack down on organisations that are campaigning against the genocide in Gaza.

The Brighton Trust provides the majority of funding for the Al Tafawk Centre, a kindergarten in Jenin in the Occupied West Bank of Palestine.

We went undercover to EXPOSE Israeli settlers

We also agreed earlier in the year to two year funding, £25,000 per year, towards the rent of The Old Palestine House in Brighton. All of this has been put in jeopardy by the decision of Santander.

In addition on 6 July Kent Reliance (One Savings Bank) froze £70,000 belonging to Trustees of The Brighton Trust and intended as grant aid to a number of radical community groups.

The Brighton Trust was established in 2016 as the Trust for Unpopular Causes. We have given hundreds of grants to Palestinian groups, campaigning organisations and people, as well as numerous other radical causes. See here for details of the last 3 years of grant giving.

The precedent for all this was set by the United States which has sanctioned and frozen the accounts of UN Raporteur Francesca Albanese and the judges of the International Criminal Court. We have in the Trump Administration the political equivalent of the Mafia.

US issues sanctions against UN investigator probing abuses in Gaza • FRANCE 24 English

What the NCA and the Counter-Terror Police have not done is to freeze the funds of Zionist organisations involved in sending money to illegal settlements in the West Bank. 32 charities according to Melanie Ward MP have sent £28 million to illegal West Bank settlements without so much as a murmur from the NCA or Counter-Terror Police.

Indeed the Charity Commission has approved the sending of money by Zionist charities to West Bank settlements.

We are therefore appealing for donations to fulfil existing commitments and to enable us to continue to make small grants to radical organisations as well as seeking to bring legal action against the banks and/or the state bodies involved in these attacks.

Either we confront what the state is doing now or we will allow them to continue to target activists and campaigns they don't like, especially those connected with Palestine.

Brighton's Old Palestine House

Politically the banks, which didn’t hesitate to come running to the State, i.e. taxpayers after the banking crash of 2007/8, need to be taken into public ownership. They were given handouts because they were ‘too big to fail’. They are too powerful. Banking is an essential requirement of modern society and the banks cannot be allowed to use their own reactionary politics to impose censorship on civil society.

Banks are too important to remain in the private sector. They are candidates for nationalisation. See

The Police & Security Services Are Using Financial Terrorism To Add to My Malicious Prosecution for ‘Terrorism’

UK Labour government oversees decision to freeze bank accounts of pro-Palestinian organisations

Two UK pro-Palestine organisations have bank accounts frozen

STOP The Banks & National Crime Agency from targeting Palestine Solidarity activists

Dozens of UK groups call for unfreezing of pro-Palestine group's bank account

Unions and charities call for pro-Palestine group to have bank account restored

Charities in England and Wales ‘donate millions to illegal Israeli settlements

Yesterday I Learnt That Santander has Frozen My Accounts – No Reason Given – No Reason Needed – Opposition to Israel’s Genocide in Gaza is Enough

The British State’s Attack & Banks’ Complicity in Attacking Palestine solidarity Activists is Financial Terrorism

You Can Donate Here 

Update

It would be useful if people email Santander to protest at their outrageous behaviour and ask them if they are happy depriving the Al Tafawk Children’s Centre of vital funding. Email addresses I have for the bank are:

ukbbusinesscomplaints@santander.co.uk, ceo@santander.co.uk,

ConsumerService@santander.co.uk,

ExecutiveCommunications@santander.co.uk,

complaints@santander.co.uk, 

Nearly a year ago I wrote about how the Police and the Security Services were using money laundering legislation, introduced to stop serious crime, to target Palestine solidarity supporters, including myself.

As is normal these days with the Terrorism Act 2000, legislation introduced for one purpose is being used for another purpose, in this case attacking peaceful direct action groups and opponents of Genocide.

It is Financial Terrorism because it is intended to frighten and deter people from taking action against the British State which is actively complicit in the Genocide in Gaza. The State faces an uphill battle to convict me in a trial starting at Kingston Crown Court on August 18^th for ‘inviting support for a proscribed organisation (Hamas)’. This despite the fact that we have a hostile Judge Plashkes KC presiding over it.

Ironically I Received This From Santander Today!

Hence the attempt to intimidate me. The question that springs to mind is whether those responsible for contacting the banks are engaged in trying to pervert the course of justice.

The message I get when I log on

In the past two years I have been debanked by three banks – Nationwide, which is an anti-Palestinian bank, HSBC and First Direct. No reason has ever been given but it’s not hard to work out what was going on. The Financial Ombudsman Service, to which I complained, has proved itself a completely toothless lapdog.

I Received This Yesterday From Santander!

The Police and the National Crime Agency have decided to attack the finances of Palestine solidarity groups. Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign and Greater Manchester Friends of Palestine have both had their bank accounts frozen because of an alleged link to Palestine Action, even before the  latters unlawful proscription.

Unity Trust Bank, which is supposed to be a progressive bank, since it’s owned by the trade unions, confirmed at a meeting with Scottish PSC that the freezing of their account was at the behest of the NCA. It seems that ‘serious crime’ today is not robbing a bank, money laundering or human trafficking – it is opposing Genocide in Palestine.

The NCA is one of these organisations that are accountable to no one but wield a great deal of power because their remit is serious crime. However Palestine solidarity has been redefined as ‘anti-Semitism’ and ‘terrorism’ so the NCA has become the State’s instrument of choice in the attempt to criminalise solidarity with the Palestinians.

It is not only in this country that the State is employing financial terrorism. Francesca Albanese, the UN Rapporteur for Palestine, has been a target of the Trump regime. Her bank accounts, credit cards and finances have been frozen, all because she has been an outspoken critic of the West’s role in financing and arming Israel’s genocide.

Albanese’s reaction to US sanctions sums up my attitude – ‘What a mafia. But they will not break us.’ The Trump and Starmer regimes are just that – mafia bosses in suits. At least though Trump doesn’t claim to be a human rights lawyer unlike Starver.

The Judges of the International Criminal Court were also targeted by Trump’s sanctions, which include travel bans, asset freezes and denial of services from US companies, for having had the temerity to press war crimes charges and issue a warrant against Netanyahu, the Hitler of our age. The idea of indicting war criminals is not one that our leaders take very kindly given that they may be next in line.

As Ashifa Kassam wrote in respect of Kimberly Prost, a Canadian Judge at the ICC:

For years, she has sat as a judge at the international criminal court, weighing accusations of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity; now she is on the same list as terrorists and those involved in organised crime. “It really was a moment of a bit of disbelief,” she said.

And that is the reality of the financial sanctions that I and others face in Britain. A government which had an iota of morality or principle, would have condemned outright the US sanctions on Albanese and ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan, which the Trump Junta imposed in February 2025.

Starmer and the ‘Labour’ Government said nothing and quietly went along with everything Trump decreed, ending up with Charles Mountbatten being sent to Washington to flatter Trump.

Capitalism is now run by politicians who owe more to Al Capone than Thomas Paine and the Rights of Man. This is the context in which I have once again been faced with anonymous allegations, the nature of which I am not allowed to see or know, being used to freeze my accounts and those of the charity of which I’m a trustee.

For the past year Santander has intermittently carried out 3 investigations into the accounts of the Brighton Trust and related organisations. It found nothing but I always suspected that their justification of ‘getting to know their customer’ was simply a pretext.

I first found out what was happening when Stripe, who handle payment processing for the Chuffed crowdfunder which we set up to appeal for donations to the Al Tafawk Children’s Centre in Jenin sent me a cryptic message saying that ‘A recent payout to your connected bank account failed’. It soon became clear why it had failed.

Without any warning Santander had frozen a total of 8 accounts. The only one spared was that of my son, which I administer. When I contacted the bank no one would speak to me from the department in question.

It was not until June 5, three days after the freezing of my accounts that they sent me an email, which said nothing other than that ‘We will arrange for a specialist complaints manager to contact you at their earliest opportunity.’ They still have not contacted me.

It is as if they were too ashamed to even try to defend their decision.

It means that I have had to take emergency action to ensure that funds raised for the children of the Al Tafawk Centre are secured. To attack the ability to operate of a charity raising funds for a children’s centre is despicable. They suffer enough at the hands of the terrorist IDF without facing the terrorism of the British state acting via its banking system.

The faceless men who run the National Crime Agency in conjunction with tame bankers are, like their counterparts in the Metropolitan Police, devoted to supporting the Genocide in Gaza and ethnic cleansing underway in the West Bank.

I am taking legal advice over my next steps and without giving anything away I will not hesitate to challenge the freeze in court if necessary. I intend to force Santander to justify their actions and to release the money. To do this I will need to raise money so I ask people to contribute to my Legal Crowdfunder. As Chuffed is based in Australia it is beyond the reach of Starver’s mafia and his police state mates.

However this whole debanking exercise needs to become a political issue. Banking is essential for anyone to function in the modern economy. To take peoples’ banking facilities away because they don’t conform to the state’s expectations is financial terrorism. Banks need to be forced to justify any attempt to debank someone.

The ideal solution would be for the banks to be nationalised. They are too important to be left in the hands of the private sector. When they get into trouble, as was the case in 2008, then they come running to the state to bail them out. If they are ‘too big to fail’ which is how they were able to secure billions of pounds from the state in a bailout, then they are too big to be owned by private shareholders.

Ivor Caplin caught by a sex sting

I have no doubt that these dirty tricks tactics by the state are intended as a prelude to my trial at Kingston Crown Court. But whilst the Secret State is targeting my bank accounts and those of other opponents of genocide, paedophiles like Ivor Caplin – former Defence Minister and former Chair of the Jewish Labour Movement go scot free.

Caplin was the subject of a sting in January 2025, when he tried to liaise with a young boy for the purposes of sex. 18 months later he still has not been charged. Of course the police have form over this as Jimmy Saville might testify. As do Sussex Police which turned a blind eye to Saville and another prominent paedophile and Charles Mountbatten’s friend, the Bishop of Lewes Peter Ball.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYKYkhRwzU8

Ivor Caplin arrested for attempt to meet 15 year old boy

However Sussex Police did arrest a friend of mine, Greg Hadfield, a former journalist on the Sunday Times and Daily Mail, for exposing Caplin’s predeliction for hard core pornography and sex with young boys on Twitter.

Jeremy Scahill on Sky TV About Israel's Burning Alive of Children

It can't be often that a Perjurer is Given a Police Award!

Hadfield was the subject of a complaint by a leading Brighton Zionist Fiona Sharpe, friend of Sussex Chief Constable Jo Shiner, who was awarded a top police award. Sharpe cannot but have been aware of Caplin’s extra-mural activities as he advertised them on X. Another who clearly knew was his ex-boyfriend and now Trade Minister, Peter Kyle the MP for Hove. Corruption

But whatever dirty tricks the Police and National Crime Agency get up to between now and my trial they will not deter me. As should be obvious from my arrest at the Nakba demonstration for defying Mark Rowley’s ban on the use of the words Globalise the Intifada.

So when we hear of two-tier policing we should remember that the Police and the Crown Prosecution Service, have always protected the rich and the powerful. That is why Andrew Mountbatten was able to get away with raping trafficked girls without as much a whisper from the Metropolitan Police. Their only concern is leaked documents.

But we should never forget that this is about the British State continuing to support war crimes such as the burning alive of people in tents as Israel bombs them mercilessly or the targeting of hospitals in Lebanon - three of which have been attacked in the last week. Attacking a state’s health facilities is a speciality of the barbarous ‘Jewish’ state.

The Police & Security Services Are Using Financial Terrorism To Add to My Malicious Prosecution for ‘Terrorism’

It is a Kafkaesque Situation in Which False Allegations are Made to Banks Which They Are Not Allowed to Reveal & I Am Not Allowed to Know

How activists are fighting terror charges for standing up with Palestine, with Tony Greenstein

In theory you are innocent until proven guilty but as the Filton 18 have learnt once the word ‘terrorism’ is uttered the State can lie with impunity and engage in any underhand smear tactics.

They do this with the complicity of the Judiciary who go weak at the knees once the magic words ‘terrorism’ and ‘national security’ are uttered. Those of us with long memories remember Spycatcher, the autobiography of an embittered MI5 agent Peter Wright.

British judges, all the way to the Law Lords upheld an injunction against their publication despite them being freely available in the United States. It was only in October 1988 when the Australian Supreme Court ruled that they should be published that their Lordships saw the futility of upholding their injunctions when everyone outside these shores knew what was in Spycatcher.

National security had become a code word for avoiding embarrassment to the Thatcher government until even Britain’s judges realised that they were like Ethelred the Unready trying to halt the waves. So it is with ‘terrorism’. With the proscription of Palestine Action it merely means a group that the Establishment doesn't like.

Never was the saying that ‘one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter’ more true.

We see this with the false allegations of Iranian money having funded Palestine Action. The Home Office gave anonymous briefings to any journalist willing to act as an unpaid government prostitute. Anyone who knows anything about Palestine Action knows that this is a lie. There is not a scrap of evidence to support it.

But when you have waged a war on the basis of a ‘dodgy dossier’ as happened with Iraq, then lying comes easily. Or as the Cabinet Secretary Robert Armstrong conceded to Malcolm Turnbull in the Australian High Court it is the duty of civil servants and politicians to be ‘economical with the truth’.

All this is by way of introduction. My ordeal began last summer, even before I was charged under the notorious s.12(1A) of the Terrorism Act 2000  with ‘expressing an opinion or belief’ that was supportive of a proscribed organisation.

In 2019 Priti Patel, who had been sacked by Theresa May for lying about her ‘holiday’ in Israel where she met Netanyahu, was brought back into office by that model of probity, Boris Johnson, and she promptly amended the Terrorism Act 2000 to make it illegal to utter any words that might be construed as supporting a proscribed organisation.

Brilliant piece of work by @MadocCairns showing how ministers in parliament at time of enactment of the 2000 Terrorism law explicitly stated it would not be used to define as “terrorist” acts of protest like those committed by Palestine Action https://t.co/2ojR6da8Sm

— David Bergman (@TheDavidBergman) July 4, 2025

The definition of terrorism in the Act is so broad that it could catch anyone out who opposes British foreign policy in some area of the world. Despite being told by Ministers when the original Terrorism Act was passed in 2000 that it wouldn’t be used against protest groups that is exactly what happened against Palestine Action.

In July 2024 my bank account at Nationwide was closed for regulatory reasons, which basically means they don’t have to tell you the reason why they are closing the account. At the time I had believed that the closure of my accounts related to a row between me and Nationwide over their refusal to send payments to the Al Tafawk Children’s Centre in Jenin.

At the time Nationwide insisted that their hostility to transferring money to Palestinians was not the reason for the closure of my accounts. Today it is clear that they had been contacted on behalf of the Police/CPS/Security Services and fed false allegations about me.

At the time I assumed that this was a one-off.  Then in March First Direct, a bank that I had been with for 33 years, suddenly froze my account.  Equally mysteriously they unfroze it two weeks later but without giving any explanation.

Fast forward to today.  Yesterday I had an ‘urgent’ email from them that I should log in to my account, which I did. There was a message that read:

At first direct we conduct regular reviews of our accounts. Having considered our position, we're writing to confirm we're no longer able to provide you with banking products and services.

We cannot provide any further information about the closure decision. However, if you have any other queries, please call us on 03 456 100 100. Lines are open 9am - 5pm Monday to Friday. It is not our intention, or that of any member of the HSBC Group, to provide you with banking facilities in the future and you should not make any such application.

The first paragraph was of course a lie. There has never before been a ‘regular review’ of my account. What had clearly happened was that the Police/ Security Services had provided false information to the bank which I am not allowed to see and they are apparently not allowed to divulge. I can only presume that they are saying that I am suspected of funding terrorist groups.

At least that is what I suspect. Because in the land of Kafka you are never allowed to know what the case against you is. Or to quote Kafka’s The Trial "It's not a matter of what you have done, but of what you are." Because I do not know the allegations that have been made against me so it is impossible to rebut them.

Last night I emailed the CEO of First Direct, Christopher Pitt to explain the situation and got the following response which seems to be much the same as received last time around.

Tony,

 

Hello.

 

Thank you for your e-mail. I’m sorry to hear about your experience.

 

At first direct we always want to deliver great customer service, but as a human-powered digital bank sometimes things can go wrong. I’ve asked the team to have a look at your concerns in more detail and we’ll get back to you within 5 working days once we’ve had the time to review.

 

Feedback like yours is important to us, so thank you again for writing to me. 

Two week’s ago First Direct’s parent bank HSBC closed a joint account I had opened with my wife in February this year. The only purpose of the account was to pay in money for the care of our autistic son but that is irrelevant because the Police and the Security Services had deemed that I was funding Iran’s ballistic missile programme or some such ‘terror’ activity.

When I complained a ‘complaint specialist’ Dave Ridgway (note the informality) explained, in almost identical words to First Direct that:

HSBC periodically reviews its services, products and accounts. This means that sometimes we take the decision to close a customer’s accounts.

Following a recent review, the bank decided that it would no longer be able to provide you with banking services or products. I’m aware that a letter was sent to you on 27th June to advise that your accounts had been closed.

In my response I pointed out, paraphrasing Sir Henry Wotton’s famous phrase, that ‘Ambassadors are sent abroad to lie for their country but it seems that HSBC ‘specialists’ are also trained to lie when they are given the opportunity.’

In fact the original quote is that an Ambassador is ‘an honest man sent to lie abroad for the good of his country’. Honesty is not a quality that HSBC seems to value in their employees.

And just to round it off, Santander is also currently investigating my personal account!  So I think we can assume that none of this is a coincidence. But what it demonstrates is that the Prosecution in my case is determined to do its best to try and unnerve and destabilise me in advance of the case they are bringing, which essentially consists of trying to make it a criminal offence to support armed resistance against the genocidal Israeli war machine.

Of course, as I never hesitate to point out, there is a law on the statute book that makes aiding and abetting a genocide a crime punishable by 30 years in prison. However if that law, the s.52 International Criminal Court Act 2001 were enforced then most of the government, led by Sir Starmer himself would be locked up in Pentonville for a couple of decades.

First Direct also like to boast of their high ratings on Trust Pilot which is ostensibly neutral.  But following an objection to my posting above by FD Trust Pilot took my review down.  It raises the question as to whether or not there is any financial link between the companies being reviewed and Trust Pilot.

The above reply said that they remove 'terrorism related content' and content that 'praises, supports or represents hate groups.'  Neither of these apply.  I said nothing about terrorism other than to point out my forthcoming  prosecution under the TA 2000 and the fact that a protest group had been proscribed as a terrorist group. 

There was certainly nothing praising hate groups or their ideology or denial of hate crimes. It was one long lie so people, when they read reviews on Trustpilot need to bear in mind that anything critical of big corporations has probably already been weeded out.

When I pointed this out Rakash simply repeated himself but didn't deny that my post had been taken down at First Direct's request.

Below are a few email addresses for the relevant banks to those who would like to email them to ask for their reasons for debanking me or to complain.

Tony Greenstein

customerservices.mmx@hsbc.co.uk

complaints.mmx@hsbc.co.uk

24hours@firstdirect.com

fd.customerrelations.mmx@firstdirect.com

Review.Team@nationwide.co.uk

christopher.j.pitt@firstdirect.com CEO of first direct