Jamie Robertson at his farmhouse. He says he never read the tweets

A British businessman is at the centre of a vast network of fake Twitter accounts used to spread anti-western propaganda and online scams.

In his day job Jamie Robertson, 37, manages a wedding catering firm that provides quaint ice-cream tricycles for couples in the home countries. His sideline, run from the back room of a rented farmhouse, caters for less ethical clientele.

For the past five years Robertson has provided clients with a means to inflate their influence on Twitter and distort public debate using an army of fake profiles — many of them automated accounts, known as “bots”, which are linked to Russian political propaganda.

At first he operated out of his mother’s council house near Frinton-on-Sea, Essex, but as his business grew he