A TEENAGER has registered scores of companies in the name of major Scottish and UK bus and rail brands, including operator Stagecoach and manufacturer Alexander Dennis, making him one of the UK’s largest transport moguls on paper.

The youngster, whom The Herald is not identifying, frequently appointed himself as chief executive and controlling shareholder of the cloned corporations. He sometimes set up corresponding profiles on the professional networking site LinkedIn.

Crucially, his companies often used the same addresses of those he mimicked.

For example, a non-trading shell firm he owned called Alexander Dennis Inc Ltd was registered at the Falkirk factory of long-standing and perfectly legitimate bus-maker Alexander Dennis Limited.

The teenager’s actions have again raised concerns about how easy it is to form a company in the UK – and just how few checks are carried out on the accuracy of corporate filings, including names and addresses.

Transparency campaigners believe Britain’s corporate registry, Companies House, is effectively an “honesty box” open to abuse by comics, cranks and criminals.

The UK Government has repeatedly promised to beef up the registry’s powers to check information and some reforms are on their way.

The latest “attack of the clones” has forced major businesses to act to protect their brands. Companies House, has already moved some of the clone companies, including Alexander Dennis Inc Ltd, to default addresses.

The teenager set up a company called Southerns Railways, a name almost identical to commuter rail franchise giant Southern Railway.

The clone businesses, formed, like many of the latest clones earlier this year, has now been re-registered at a Companies House default address.

The clone Southerns Railways was listed as a subsidiary of a business called Govia Thamelink, Railway Limited, which mimicked Govia Thameslink Railway Limited.

The teenager created a series of companies aping the names of other transport firms and brands, including Newcastle-based multinational Go-Ahead, Northern Ireland manufacturer Wrightbus and local coach and taxi firms around the UK.

However, he has a special interest in Perth-based Stagecoach and its subsidiaries.

He created clones of Megabus, Bluebird and Citylink and a whole range of local Stagecoach or sometimes “Stagecoast” operation.

One clone company, Stagecoachs Transport Limited, comes complete with board directors, including one of the founders of the real Stagecoach, Ann Gloag.

A Stagecoach spokeswoman said: “We are supporting Companies House and other agencies in their efforts to address this issue and take any necessary action. These companies are in no way associated with our business and we understand several transport businesses have been targeted in the same way.”

This is not the first time Scottish and UK companies have faced a serial cloner.

Five years ago The Herald revealed a man had created nearly 100 limited companies with names almost identical to those of major alcohol brands, including some of the biggest names in Scotch Whisky.

For six months Indian Tofik Ovaysi lived life to the full in the western Ukrainian city of Ternopil, where locals thought he was a tycoon about to invest in a major vodka distillery.

He styled himself as the “baron of spirits” before leaving the town – and debts.

Big whisky makers such as Diageo had to go through the laborious and expensive task of contesting his use of their brands and corporate names, or names similar to theirs.

It cost just £10 each to register a company, and far more for businesses affected to undo the damage.

Investigators stress there can be any number of reasons for people to spend so little money to become a tycoon on paper.

Sometimes it is a joke. On other occasions it could be a simple invoice fraud scheme or an elaborate hoax.

Financial crimes expert Graham Barrow said: “There is something profoundly wrong with a system that allows people across a spectrum ranging from those who have social difficulties to others with clear criminal intent, to abuse the UK company formation process with such impunity.

“If it is not possible to place any trust in company names, directors’ names or the addresses they operate from, then the entire foundations of our corporate structures are effectively built on sand and this will ultimately undermine the credibility of UK companies both here and around the world.”

Richard Smith, another veteran company abuse investigator, said: “These crazy stories are further illustrations of what inevitably happens when a register of companies, open to all, is set up as an “honesty box”: it becomes the plaything of criminals and madmen.

“The current legal framework makes it even worse: the cost of letting unchecked rubbish into the register, and then cleaning it out again, via the courts, is far higher than the cost of keeping the rubbish out in the first place, via properly resourced systems of monitoring and checking at Companies House. Reforms cannot come soon enough.”

A spokesman for Companies House said he could not comment on individual cases.

He added the body made sure filings were complete “but at present, the Registrar of Companies has no legal powers to verify or validate the information which is delivered to her. “Provided a document appears to meet the requirement to be properly delivered, the Registrar must register it.”

The UK Government has repeatedly said it will beef up Companies House and produced a White Paper in February outlining specific new “powers to query suspicious appointments or filings and, in some cases, request further evidence or reject the filing”.

Reforms should be brought in during the current parliament year. Government is also saying it will boost funding for Companies House.