A Redbridge teenager has registered scores of companies in names almost identical to major brands.

The young man, who the Recorder 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.

His companies often used the same addresses of those he mimicked, with one coming complete with board directors that included one of the founders of the real firm.

Companies House has already moved some of the clone companies to default addresses but the teenager’s actions have raised concerns about how easy it is to form a company in the UK.

Veteran company abuse investigator, Richard Smith, 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 government has repeatedly promised to beef up the registry’s powers to check information and some reforms are on their way.

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

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, director’s 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.”

A spokesperson for Companies House said they could not comment on individual cases.

They added that the body made sure that 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 government 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”.