Director at London accountancy firm no longer working there after JC editor sheds light on his history of trolling Jewish people

It has been reported that a Director at a London accountancy firm is no longer working there after Stephen Pollard, Editor at the JC, contacted the firm to report the accountant’s history of trolling Jewish people and organisations.

Tom Gauterin, “Director, Private Client Tax Services for Smith and Williamson”, went by the Twitter username of @Ruralmaestro, had a record of harassing Jewish people online, which included labelling Mr Pollard a “lifelong hard right racist.”

Regarding the Board of Deputies of British Jews (BOD), a Jewish community charity, Mr Gauterin said that Labour Party leader Keir Starmer would “do exactly as the BOD — a hard right, fanatically pro-Israel group — tells him.” Mr Gauterin went on to label the Jewish organisation a “hard right racist group” who would “attack” Sir Keir “the moment he says anything progressive or egalitarian they don’t like.”

On Rachel Riley, the Jewish TV personality and campaigner against Jew-hatred, the Mr Gauterin wrote: “No idea what Riley thinks she is doing and why, but she’s a proven liar and a fraud who harms those Jews who really *are* suffering from antisemitic abuse. She’s utterly vile and to pretend otherwise is to deny reality. Plus: if you know her, tell her to stop it pronto.”

Mr Pollard reported the tweets to the Chairman of Smith and Williamson. Within a matter of days, Mr Gauterin’s tweets had been made private, and within a few weeks, the firm’s CEO had called Mr Pollard to confirm that “Mr Gauterin no longer worked for Smith and Williamson.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism has long called for tougher regulations on social media sites and that social networks proactively search for and remove hate speech from their platforms.