Warwickshire man jailed for stirring up racial, religious and homophobic hatred

Thomas Webster, aged 29 from Yew Tree Close in Lapworth, featured in a BBC Wales documentary when an undercover journalist spent a year with a far-right group.

The documentary, broadcast in January 2025, exposed Webster’s extreme views and filmed him talking about making video guides on how to deal with different races and how to exploit them.

Following the broadcast, information was passed to Counter Terrorism Police in the West Midlands who launched an investigation into Webster and particularly his criminal postings on social media.

Webster, who is a member of far-right fascist group Patriotic Alternative, had also boasted about discriminating against non-white people through his work at HMRC.

HMRC said it had “taken this case extremely seriously and taken decisive action”.

The government body said that following an internal disciplinary process, “the individual concerned was dismissed from HMRC and ceased to be employed by the department in February 2025”.

He was arrested in September 2025 and subsequently charged with 12 public order offences of racial hatred, religious hatred and hatred related to sexual orientation relating to content on six of his social media accounts posted between September 2024 to September 2025.

During a 12-month period, he repeatedly posted about violence towards people of other races, sexualities and religions, while promoting white supremacist views.

He used multiple accounts across X and Substack to write messages. Some older accounts had been closed by the platforms for violating rules against hateful conduct and violent speech.

The investigation led to a selection of charges being presented to the Crown Prosecution Service to reflect his social media posting, which demonstrated the sheer volume of evidence investigators worked through to establish Webster’s offending.

Last month, he admitted posting material online using threatening words or behaviour which was intended to stir up hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation, and a further offence of posting material online using threatening words or behaviour intended to stir up hatred on the grounds of religion.

Material shown during the sentencing of Webster showed his mindset was not isolated to his social media posts.

He had pleaded guilty at his first appearance at Coventry Magistrates Court on August 5.

Detective Chief Superintendent Alison Hurst, head of counter terrorism policing West Midlands, said: “I hope the fact that he is now serving a prison sentence sends a clear message that extreme racist views and promoting serious violence is completely unacceptable in our society and it simply will not be tolerated.

“I would like to thank the BBC for their documentary which assisted our investigation and get a vile individual jailed.”

Frank Ferguson, chief crown prosecutor for the CPS Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division, added: “Thomas Webster was vehement in his hatred of people whose race or sexuality did not fit with his extremist ideals.

“He continually published distressing, offensive and violent statements with the intention to make others hate those he was attacking and to cause them fear.

“This is a serious crime and those who promote, encourage or condone violence against others will be prosecuted.”