Corporal Mikko Vehvilainen, who was convicted after a trial in March of being a member of neo-Nazi terrorist group National Action, and was jailed for eight years

A British Army veteran who fought in Afghanistan and was described as an 'outstanding' soldier was at the heart of a neo-Nazi terrorist group which set its sights on recruiting from within the armed forces, it can be revealed today.

White supremacist and self-confessed racist Corporal Mikko Vehvilainen, 34, believed a 'race war' was coming and tried to establish an all-white armed stronghold in Powys, Wales, a court heard.

The Royal Anglian Regiment soldier who served with distinction since 2012 was convicted of being a member of National Action, and was jailed for eight years.

He was kicked out of the Army after his arrest in September 2017, along with another soldier, as he tried to form an underground network and stockpiled weapons.

Two other serving soldiers faced criminal charges but were internally disciplined and remained in the Army.

The Army's most senior soldier, Sergeant Major Glenn Haughton, posting a social media video which said: 'If you're a serving soldier or a would-be soldier, and you hold these intolerant and extremist views, as far as I'm concerned, there is no place for you in the British Army - so get out.'

The soldier's case has not been able to be reported until today until six others, connected through the terror organisation which has been banned in Britain since December 2016, had also been to trial.

Alexander Deakin, the group's 'regional commander' was jailed for eight years in April 2018.

Today, Adam Thomas and Claudia Patatas from Oxfordshire, who named their baby Adolf Hitler, were found guilty of being members of the group. Before the group was disrupted, Thomas asked whether or not he could buy a fun from Vehvilainen. He also asked if it would notices if guns were stolen from his base.

Vehvilainen believed a 'race war' was coming and attempted to recruit soldiers in the British Army. He was pictured performing a Nazi salute in his native Finland

Mikko Vehvilainen, now 34, who joined the Army in 2012 was previously known as an 'outstanding soldier' and boxer but he was jailed for eight years in March. Pictured above, believed to be in Afghanistan

National Action member Alexander Deakin (pictured, left) bragged police would never find him but was discovered inside a cupboard. Daniel Bogunovic, 27, from Leicester, (right) was found guilty of belonging to National Action

Nathan Pryke (left) and Darren Fletcher (right) were also found to be members of the proscribed organisation

Joel Wilmore, 24, (left) admitted membership of neo-Nazi terrorist group National Action, which was banned in 2016. Alexander Deakin, 24, (right) was known as the 'regional commander' of the National Action group. He believed he could not be caught by police

Adam Thomas and Claudia Patatas from Oxfordshire, who named their baby Adolf Hitler, were found guilty of being members of the group

Thomas's close friend Darren Fletcher, 28, of Wednesfield, West Midlands, Joel Wilmore, 24, of Stockport, Greater Manchester, and Nathan Pryke, 26, of March, Cambridgeshire all admitted being part of the group at the beginning of their trial. They will all be sentenced on December 14.

Another solider, fellow 2 Anglians soldier Private Mark Barrett, was acquitted of being a National Action member, but jurors heard that he had a cardboard swastika openly displayed in his window at Alexander Barracks in Cyprus.

The 25-year-old told police during interviews that his sketchbook doodles of the Nazi symbol and Second World War German tanks had been at the behest of 'intimidating' Vehvilainen.

Vehvilainen and Barrett, formerly of Kendrew Barracks, Cottesmore, Rutland, were thrown out of the Army.

A licensed firearms holder, Vehvilainen moved from Finland to the UK with his mother and sibling at the age of four when his parents’ marriage broke down.

His mother, formerly from Lincolnshire but now living abroad, said in court that as a teenager her ‘mischievous’ son was ‘a little bit challenging’.

Asked when he might have developed his ‘deeply offensive and racist views’, she said: ‘I really don’t know. I was in complete shock and disbelief [when he was arrested in September 2017].’

His father Erkki told the Daily Mail that when his son returned to Finland to work in his company he ‘appeared to be extremely interested in religion and kickboxing’. Vehvilainen married a Bolivian woman and moved to Bolivia with her and their daughter for three years, but returned but when the relationship faltered.

He settled in the Finnish city of Turku, where he met the Russian woman who was to become his second wife, and joined the far Right Finnish Resistance Movement.

Vehvilainen was arrested after threatening a neighbour with an air pistol in a dispute over loud music, although it is unclear whether he was ever convicted. He returned to the UK with his wife and their two children in 2013, when his application to join the British Army was successful.

Jailing Vehvilainen in March, Judge Melbourne Inman QC told the veteran he had a 'long and deep-seated adherence' to racist ideology.

Now, details of how National Action followers were planning their 'battle' have emerged now other cases have been completed.

Adam Thomas wearing the hooded white robes of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) whilst brandishing a machete in front of a KKK flag at his home in Oxfordshire. Thomas, 22, and his partner Claudia Patatas, 38, have been found guilty of being members of the extreme right-wing organisation National Action

A which Corporal Mikko Vehvilainen, 33, practiced knife throwing on was made with foil and old Army uniform (pictured). He also kept swastika bunting, an SS ceremonial dagger and a 'crudely made' electromagnetic pulse (EMP) device capable of inflicting serious wounds

Vehvilainen's weaponry, including an SS dagger (bottom row, second from left) was found when police searched his home as they investigated his links to the banned extremist organisation

When searching two properties, police discovered Vehvilainen kept swastika bunting, an SS ceremonial dagger and a 'crudely made' electromagnetic pulse (EMP) device at his home.

Officers also discovered a swastika flag, Adolf Hitler stickers, and a CD containing Third Reich music at his properties in Brecon and Llansilin, Powys.

Machetes, knuckledusters, a crossbow with arrows, a large knife and a hammer were also recovered from the properties.

He had a picture at the property in Llansilin, which showed him giving a Nazi-type salute at a memorial to his native Finland's independence, in 1917.

Earlier this year, a Birmingham Crown Court jury cleared him of possession of a terrorism document - the Anders Breivik manifesto.

Breivik killed 77 people in two attacks in Norway in 2011. He was also found not guilty on two counts of stirring up racial hatred relating to forum posts on a white nationalist website.

However he was jailed in March for being a member of National Action.

Before his conviction, Vehvilainen was considered an 'outstanding' soldier and Army boxer who had risked his life for Queen and country.

Vehvilainen had been a key part of National Action's strategy of attempting to grow its membership within the armed forces.

Vehvilainen, a married father-of-three, lived at Sennybridge Camp, Powys, Wales, but was renovating a home he had bought in the village of Llansilin, in efforts to build a whites-only stronghold.

It was in that house police found his collection. Officers also uncovered what prosecutors described as an arsenal of weapons, including a warhammer, a legally held shotgun, swastika bunting and other Nazi paraphernalia.

In the garage of his house at Sennybridge, he kept a makeshift target dummy, and body armour which had been spray-painted black.

Who are the National Action members that have been convicted? Mikko Vehvilainen, 34, from Sennybridge, was convicted of being a member of National Action and was jailed for eight years. Adam Thomas, 22, from Oxfordshire, was found guilty of National Action membership and could face up to 10 years in jail. Claudia Patatas, 38, from Oxfordshire, was also convicted of National Action membership and similarly faces up to 10 years in prison. Daniel Bogunovic, 27, from Leicester, was found guilty of belonging to National Action and will be sentenced on December 14. Darren Fletcher, 28, from Wednesfield, pleaded guilty to membership of the group and will be sentenced on December 14. Joel Wilmore, 24, from Stockport, also admitted to being part of National Action. He is due to be sentenced on December 14. Nathan Pryke, 26, from March, pleaded guilt to National Action membership. He will also be sentenced on December 14. Alexander Deakin, 24, from Birmingham, jailed for 12 months for inciting racial hatred. He was National Action's Midlands Leader. Advertisement

He had a part-time job at an activity centre nearby, and had served with distinction since joining the Army in 2012, until his arrest in September 2017.

His sentencing hearing was told he 'served his country and risked his life in Afghanistan', and was considered 'an outstanding soldier'.

Pavlos Panayi QC told the trial judge: 'His career in the Army is over and he leaves having brought dishonour on himself and what is more, infamy.'

Today, a mother and father who named their baby after Adolf Hitler were convicted of being members of a neo-Nazi group.

Former Amazon security guard Adam Thomas, 22, and his girlfriend, Claudia Patatas, 38, are facing up to 10 years in jail after being found guilty of being part of banned extreme right group National Action, today.

A search of the couple's Oxfordshire home uncovered Nazi memorabilia, a Ku Klux Klan outfit and an arsenal of deadly weapons including crossbows, machetes and axes. They will be sentenced at a later date.

On the day of Vehvilainen's arrest in September 2017, his father-in-law was at home and the resulting shock caused him to suffer a stroke, and he died a month later.

Mr Panayi said: 'The defendant will always have that on his conscience.'

When he was arrested, Vehvilainen told his wife: 'I'm being arrested for being a patriot.'

He admitted possession of a banned pepper spray before his trial, but was cleared of having a document useful to a terrorist and two counts of stirring up racial hatred in forum posts on the website Christogenea.org.

A jacket bearing a Swastika armband found during police searches of Adam Thomas and Claudia Patatas' home. The couple have been found guilty of having a role in National Action

Claudia Patatas leaves Birmingham Crown Court this afternoon, November 12, after being found guilty of being a member of National Action

The Press Association asked the Ministry of Defence how many members of the armed forces had been disciplined for involvement in far-right extremism in the year to December 2017.

The MoD was unable to provide information on how many had faced court martial or internal disciplinary procedures, because the data was not recorded by the Royal Military Police database.

It added that a manual check of the database would be cost-prohibitive.

In a statement provided with its freedom of information response, the MoD said: 'Extremist ideology is completely at odds with the values and ethos of the armed forces.

'The armed forces have robust measures in place to ensure those exhibiting extremist views are neither tolerated nor permitted to serve.

'All allegations of unacceptable behaviour are investigated and action taken as appropriate.'

All Armed Forces personnel are subject to vetting during recruitment, to establish previous convictions or existing links to extremist or banned organisations.

All ranks receive training on the standards expected of the forces, with annual refreshers.

Following conviction, Colonel Graham Taylor, of the Army Personnel Services Group, said: 'Far right ideology is completely at odds with the values and standards of the Army and whilst we are only talking about a very small number of cases we take this issue very seriously.

'We have robust measures in place, including during the recruitment process, to ensure those exhibiting extremist views are neither tolerated nor permitted to serve.

'Any soldier receiving a custodial sentence will be discharged from the Army.'

What is National Action? How 'racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic' far-right group became the first to be outlawed since WWII National Action (NA) was founded in August 2013 by Benjamin Raymond and Alex Davies. Raymond was a politics graduate from the University of Essex, then living in Bognor Regis. He immersed himself in a disturbing online world of right-wing content. Raymond backed calls for a 'nationwide fascist army'. Davies was a University of Warwick student and British National Party member when he became involved in National Action. At the soldier's home officers found weapons including guns, large knives, ammunition and knuckle dusters. He was attempting to recruit others to form an armed group for terror organisation National Action in Wales He was once quoted as saying 'I don't want to say what I'd do to Jews, it's too extreme', while Raymond had said: 'There are non-whites and Jews in my country who all need to be exterminated', adding he 'loved Hitler'. Both men worried that the right-wing of politics had become diluted and founded National Action as an uncompromising National Socialist outfit. The group's logo borrowed heavily from the Second World War Nazi organisation the SA. NA was also known for its slick propaganda on social media, but also leaflets and stickers, with mottos such as 'White Jihad' and 'Britain is ours - the rest must go'. Experts have described NA as 'potentially the most dangerous... of any fascist movement to appear in the UK for many years'. The group itself would proclaim in August 2015, that 'only bullets will stop us'. Its first demonstration was a banner drop in Birmingham in November 2013. Black-clad members donned face coverings, warning of race war and pushing the conspiracy that an elite was bent on destroying the white population through immigration. Islamic State, Pol Pot's brutal Khmer Roughe and Norwegian terrorist Anders Breivik all served to inspire the organisation. Norwegian terrorist Anders Breivik (pictured) served as an inspiration to the group Senior member Matthew Hankinson said the group would see that 'traitors' ended up 'hanging from lampposts' and said if innocent people are hurt in the process 'so be it'. The organisation hit headlines when members voiced support for the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox in 2016 by Thomas Mair, with its North East division's Twitter account stating: 'Vote Leave - don't let this man's sacrifice be in vain. The organisation even took Mair's outburst at his trial - 'death to traitors, freedom for Britain' - as its slogan on its former website. Members attended demonstrations along with other far right groups, in places like York, Liverpool, Darlington and Newcastle. At its height it had between 70-100 members, recruiting mainly young people aged 15-29, but also trying - and succeeding in at least one case - to attract members of the Armed Forces. In 2015, 25-year-old member Zack Davies attacked a Sikh with a hammer and machete while screaming 'white power'. In 2016, 17-year-old member Jack Coulson was arrested after posting pictures of a homemade pipe-bomb on Snapchat alongside threats against Muslims. It was banned by Home Secretary Amber Rudd on December 16, 2016 after a series of incidents, including its voicing support for the murder of Jo Cox. The group had not carried out any terrorist attacks but was linked to a plot to kill Labour MP Rosie Cooper. In total, 10 people have now been convicted or admitted membership of the terrorist group. Advertisement

Ex-Amazon security guard, 22, and his girlfriend, 38, who named their baby 'Adolf' and posed for pictures with Ku Klux Klan masks are facing 10 years behind bars after they were found guilty of being part of a neo-Nazi terrorist group

By Lara Keay for MailOnline and Andy Dolan for The Daily Mail

A mother and father who named their baby after Adolf Hitler have been convicted of being members of a neo-Nazi group.

Former Amazon security guard Adam Thomas, 22, and his girlfriend, Claudia Patatas, 38, are facing up to 10 years in jail after being found guilty of being part of banned extreme right group National Action today.

A search of the couple's Oxfordshire home uncovered Nazi memorabilia, a Ku Klux Klan outfit and an arsenal of deadly weapons including crossbows, machetes and axes.

Pictures later emerged of Thomas, originally from the West Midlands, wearing the white hooded mask synonymous with the white supremacist group as cradling his young child.

A jury at Birmingham Crown Court was told the couple had given their child the middle name 'Adolf', which self-confessed racist Thomas admitted was in 'admiration' of Hitler.

Guilty: Adam Thomas (left) and his girlfriend Claudia Patatas (right) are pictured in their police mugshots

Meanwhile, the KKK robes that Thomas wore in a series of photos shown to the jury – including one with his baby – were inherited from his great-grandfather, a supporter of Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists in the 1930s.

Born in Sutton Coldfield but raised in Birmingham, Thomas spent much of his childhood with his maternal grandparents, but he continued to see his parents.

The extremism that would lead him to National Action was already so ingrained in him that at school he was referred to the Government’s Prevent strategy after teachers overheard him racially abusing fellow pupils at the age of 13. The only white child in his class, he was eventually expelled and went to a special school.

Thomas left without any GCSEs but in a bizarre turn of events two years later the self-confessed Holocaust denier moved to Israel, where he lived first in a kibbutz and then a college where he tried to convert to Judaism.

He met Patatas via the encrypted Telegram messaging app – also favoured by Islamic State recruiters – after flying back to the UK in 2016. Patatas was born and raised in Lisbon, Portugal, and graduated in English and Germanic philology. She had no known connections to the far Right.

Patatas moved to the UK in 2010 to live with a pagan far Right activist she met on a camping holiday. She fell under Thomas’s spell in November 2016 and soon became pregnant with their child.

Police said the couple’s baby son, looked after by his mother throughout the trial, will now be the subject of ‘normal safeguarding procedures’ but it was for social workers to decide on his future.

A third defendant, a leading member of National Action's Midlands' branch, Daniel Bogunovic, 27, of Leicester, was also convicted of being a member of National Action.

Bogunovic already had a conviction from earlier this year for stirring up racial hatred by plastering Aston University in Birmingham with the group's offensive stickers.

The jury of six men and five women found Thomas guilty of an additional offence of having a terrorist manual called the Anarchist's Cookbook. Patatas was bailed ahead of sentencing.

They were told he and his partner intended to wage a 'holy war' against black, Jewish, Asian and gay people.

Asked about his child's middle name, Thomas said it did 'reflect an interest' and 'admiration' of the Nazi leader.

He told the court: 'It definitely doubles up as the name of Adolf Hitler.

Adam Thomas and Claudia Patatas's house in Oxfordshire where memorabilia which had the swastika emblazoned on it was found

'It's undeniable and I don't make a secret of it. It does reflect an interest in that topic and admiration for what it represents.'

He said the name Adolf was 'not controversial' in Portugal, where his partner Patatas is from, claiming the couple planned to move there.

Asked by the prosecution if he was a racist, he answered: 'Yes'.

Prosecutor Barnaby Jameson QC told the court earlier in the trial: 'National Action is a group of vehement neo-Nazis, glorifying Hitler and the Third Reich.

'Openly and aggressively Nazi, National Action is anti-black, anti-Semitic, anti-Islamic and anti-gay.

'The world into which this case will take you is a world in which any right-thinking person would wish did not exist.

Patatas is pictured with Thomas's close friend Darren Fletcher, who is awaiting sentence after admitting being part of National Action at the beginning of court proceedings

'All the defendants in this case were cut from the same National Action cloth. They were fanatical, highly motivated, energetic and closely linked.'

Thomas was described in court as a 'vehement Nazi' who worked as an security guard with a company contracted by Amazon.

Over the course of a seven-week hearing, jurors were told how the racist couple met online in November 2016 before moving in together the following April.

Photographs from their 'family album' showed Thomas cradling his newborn son dressed in hooded white KKK robes.

The fascist pair can also be seen smiling for another picture with the baby, who was born in late 2017, while proudly displaying a Swastika flag.

They joined National Action after being 'fuelled by hatred and division' and engaged in a 'terror born out of a fanatical and tribal belief in white supremacy,' the court heard.

Adam Thomas is pictured with his face covered and posing with a long-bladed knife

Both defendants had attended meetings of the far-right group, formed in 2013, prior to its ban in December 2016.

The group was prohibited by the Government after members celebrated the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox by far-right terrorist Thomas Mair earlier that year.

Despite being outlawed, the group carried out 'White Jihad' - a white holy war - to uphold white supremacist values around the country.

The court heard transcripts of encrypted Telegram chat messages following the ban proving all three defendants were still members of the group post-proscription.

Patatas, a wedding photographer, used the chat platform to message another 'vehement Nazi' Darren Fletcher, 28, saying 'all Jews must be put to death'.

The Portuguese-born mother, who has a black sun SS symbol tattooed on her back, also revealed she once celebrated Hitler's birthday by eating a cake with a 'Fuhrer face' decorated on it.

She wrote: 'I did struggle to slice his face. Adolf is life.'

Meanwhile Thomas called on refugees to be gassed, black people to be killed and the Chinese people to be turned into biofuel in a string of vile racist messages.

He also said homosexuals and mixed-race children should be killed by stoning, beheading and hanging and wanted to start a British chapter of the KKK.

Thomas put: 'We could slaughter billions of non-whites no problem, we are superior....Personally all I want is a white homeland.

'I don't accept anyone who isn't 100 per cent white.'

The messages from the chat group 'TripleK Mafia' were found by police on a mobile phone seized from National Action Midlands leader Alex Deakin, 24, from Birmingham.

Jurors heard Thomas - who posed for photos in front a US Confederate flag with his crossbows - used his weapons for target practice in his back garden.

When counter terror police raided their home they found Nazi flags, Ku Klux Klan robes and a variety of fascist memorabilia - including Swastika cushions and pastry cutters.

The couple even had racist Christmas cards - including one bearing a picture of KKK members and the message 'May All Your Christmasses Be White'.

Newspaper cuttings relating to the Norwegian far-Right mass murderer Anders Breivik, who killed 77 people in 2011, were also found in the couple's living room.