MP calls for answers over mystery of South Shields house being used as address for over 200 businesses

South Shields MP Emma Lewell-Buck aims to investigate it was revealed that the property, in Centenary Avenue, South Shields, is listed as the headquarters for a staggering 203 businesses.

The semi-detached former council home is the registered address for an array of companies, according to data from Companies House,

Mystery surrounds why the home has come to be the registered address of so many firms but the puzzle has emerged justs weeks after the Panama Papers scandal which lifted the lid on a raft of tax havens and shell companies.

Neighbours on the street say they are the dark over the property’s potential use as a business centre.

One resident said that a man lived in the home, who he saw ‘now and again’.

Nobody was home when the Gazette visited the house yesterday.

Mrs Lewell-Buck says she is determined to unearth answers to the mystery.

She said “There are some serious questions to be answered here.

“There are questions that need to be answered and I will be looking to get those answers.

“It would be helpful to know who owns the property and what is going on there.

Among the companies who call the home their own are Global Agrotrade Ltd, a private limited company incorporated in December 14.

Companies House data shows they share the building with the likes of Calibri Properties Limited, Blackwood Enterprise Limited and Artic Trading LLP.

They are sharing a single South Shields address with Smith Remedies LLP, Pharma Gor Machinery Ltd and Soft and Cash Limited.

The leak from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca has lifted the lid on how tax havens are used by rich and powerful individuals and organisations to hide wealth.

It has also been discovered that more than 500 banks, including their subsidiaries and branches, registered nearly 15,600 shell companies with Mossack Fonseca.

There are links to 12 current or former heads of state and government in the data.

More than 60 relatives and associates of heads of state and other politicians are also implicated.

A spokesman for South Tyneside Council said the property was not listed as a local authority home.