Cpl Mikko Vehvilainen was jailed for eight years in March for being a member of National Action

A British army veteran who served in Afghanistan and was described as an “outstanding” soldier was convicted of being a member of the far-right group National Action, it can be reported for the first time.

Restrictions preventing the identification of Cpl Mikko Vehvilainen and Alexander Deakin, the Midlands regional organiser and senior member of National Action, were lifted after the conclusion on Monday of linked proceedings relating to Adam Thomas, Claudia Patatas and Daniel Bogunovic.

All were found guilty of being members of National Action, which was banned in 2016.

Prosecutors said that Vehvilainen, jailed for eight years in March, was a recruiter for the organisation and a key part of its strategy to expand its membership within the armed forces. The self-confessed racist believed in a coming “race war” and wanted to help establish an all-white stronghold in a Welsh village.

He appeared at Birmingham crown court alongside fellow 2nd Battalion Royal Anglian soldier Pte Mark Barrett, who was acquitted of National Action membership but, like Vehvilainen, is believed to have been kicked out of the army. The court was told that Barrett had a cardboard swastika openly displayed on his window sill 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. Two other soldiers who knew Vehvilainen faced criminal charges but were internally disciplined and remained in the army.

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Court artist sketch by Elizabeth Cook of Mikko Vehvilainen (left) and Mark Barrett. Photograph: Elizabeth Cook/PA

Vehvilainen, 34, a married father of three, was renovating a home he had bought in the Welsh village of Llansilin in efforts to build a whites-only stronghold. It was there that police found a photograph showing him giving a Nazi-style salute at a 1917 memorial to his native Finland’s independence along with an arsenal of weapons and swastika bunting.

When he was arrested in September 2017, Vehvilainen told his wife: “I’m being arrested for being a patriot.” His father-in-law was at home at the time and the resulting shock caused him to suffer a stroke, the court heard. Pavlos Panayi QC said he died a month later and “the defendant will always have that on his conscience”.

Deakin was arrested while hiding in an airing cupboard. He had bragged that incompetent counter-terrorism officers would never catch up with him but pleaded with friends for advice after he was arrested and his computer and hard drive seized.

The 24-year-old, who was unemployed, had been caught on CCTV putting up racist stickers on Aston University campus. He was jailed for eight years on 13 April.

Deakin spread racist propaganda from his bedroom at this parents’ house, telling fellow National Action members on the encrypted chat app Telegram that in a future “race war”, the organisation would have a “KKK-themed death squad”.

The latest convictions, which bring the number of National Action members convicted to 10, come amid concerns about the increasing threat posed by far-right terrorism.

Neo-Nazi couple found guilty of membership of banned terror group Read more

Chf Supt Matt Ward, who heads the West Midlands counter-terrorism Unit, said that while there had always been people with far-right views in the UK, “they’ve come together, they’re more organised, more sophisticated, there’s a greater sense of ideology and a greater determination to actually go out there and cause significant harm”.

His comments echo those of the Metropolitan police assistant commissioner, Neil Basu, who told MPs last month that Islamists and far-right extremists were feeding off each other. Of 17 planned terror attacks foiled by security services since March last year, four were being organised by far-right groups.

Jack Coulson, a 17-year-old member of National Action before its ban, was convicted at Leeds crown court for making a pipe bomb in his bedroom. He posted a picture online calling Thomas Mair, the killer of Labour MP Jo Cox, a “hero”, adding: “We need more people like him to butcher the race traitors.”

National Action was also connected to a plot to kill Labour MP Rosie Cooper, which was only uncovered when a disillusioned member tipped off anti-racism group Hope Not Hate.

At the Old Bailey earlier this year, the group’s leader, Christopher Lythgoe, was cleared of encouraging the plot but convicted of being a National Action member and jailed for eight years.