A political party's deputy leader accuses one of the UK's top law enforcement agencies of leaking his private financial details to the press. It sounds like a conspiracy thriller, but it is a real dispute at the heart of British politics in July 2026. Richard Tice of Reform UK has written to the National Crime Agency (NCA) asking it to investigate whether it leaked information about payments to his companies. The payments had been flagged to the NCA through a system called Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs). Tice says he only found out about these reports when contacted by the Guardian newspaper. The NCA says it does not confirm or deny receiving SARs, and that breaching confidentiality risks committing a tipping off offence under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
Suspicious Activity Reports, or SARs, are a formal way for banks, solicitors, and other regulated businesses to alert the NCA when they suspect money laundering or terrorist financing. They are not accusations of a crime – they are pieces of intelligence. In 2024/25, 866,616 cases were flagged in the UK. The NCA often shares information from SARs with police forces and other agencies involved in investigations. According to the NCA, SARs are "a vital source of intelligence … providing information and intelligence from the private sector that would otherwise not be visible to law enforcement."
“Explains Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) and why they matter in the Reform UK funding controversy.”
The system exists because of laws like the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, which require businesses to report suspicious activity. Once a SAR is filed, the NCA can decide whether to investigate further. It can also grant a "defence against tipping off" – meaning the person who filed the report cannot be prosecuted for breaking confidentiality, as long as they acted in good faith. But the NCA itself is bound by strict rules. It says it does not confirm or deny receipt of SARs, and any leak of that information could be a criminal offence.
The current controversy centres on several transactions involving senior Reform UK figures. According to the Guardian, bankers filed at least four SARs about transactions involving party leaders. One was a £5m gift from cryptocurrency billionaire Christopher Harborne to Nigel Farage. Another was a £1m donation to a Reform fundraising vehicle, Britain Means Business, via the mother of a convicted fraudster, George Cottrell. Cottrell had also loaned £80,000 to Tice's company, Tisun Investment, in late 2024. The NCA has reportedly been unable to identify the ultimate source of funds for that £1m donation and is seeking help from a foreign partner.
For UK readers, this matters because SARs exist to protect the financial system from abuse, including by political figures. If leaks are happening, trust in the system is damaged. If SARs are being filed correctly, it shows that banks are doing their duty. But it also raises questions about transparency. Unlike other democracies, the UK does not have a central register of who donates to political parties' leadership campaigns. Reform has argued that gifts relating to "purely personal" support do not need to be declared under parliamentary rules. Yet the volume of money flowing through party-linked vehicles has put the system under strain.
Q: What is a Suspicious Activity Report (SAR)? A SAR is a report that banks, solicitors, and other businesses must send to the National Crime Agency if they suspect money laundering or terrorist financing. It's not an accusation of a crime, but a piece of intelligence that helps law enforcement spot patterns.
Q: Why are Reform UK figures at the centre of this story? Several transactions involving party leaders Nigel Farage and Richard Tice were reported by banks as suspicious. These include a £5m gift from a cryptocurrency billionaire and a £1m donation routed via a convicted fraudster's mother. The NCA is investigating the source of funds.
Q: Can the NCA legally leak SAR information? No. The NCA says it does not confirm or deny receipt of SARs. Leaking such information could be a criminal offence under the Proceeds of Crime Act. Richard Tice has asked the NCA to investigate whether a leak occurred.
What happens next is unclear. The NCA has not commented on Tice's letter. The Guardian has reported that it approached Reform with questions about the transactions before the stories broke. Reform has used a tactic dubbed "Fleet Street spoilers" – handing a problematic story to a more sympathetic outlet, the Telegraph, to control the narrative. This is not the first time: in April, after the Guardian approached Farage about an undisclosed £5m gift, the Telegraph ran an interview mentioning it alongside a claim his home had been firebombed. The NCA's investigation into the donations, if any, is ongoing. And the broader question of how political party funding is reported and scrutinised remains a live issue.