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It can also be revealed that Mr Lithgow is the same Adrian Lithgow who, in May 2007, pleaded guilty to racially aggravated harassment and threatening behaviour towards a Yugoslavian railway worker.

The incident occurred late one night at London's Victoria station, when he launched a barrage of abuse towards the railway employee in ending asking: "have you got a work permit?" Once the situation became more heated a manager was called, and Mr Lithgow proceeded to throw a hot pasty at the staff members tried to poke one with an umbrella and then grabbed the manager around the throat. He was fined ￡ 60, ordered to pay ￡ 400 in compensation and an additional ￡ 60 in costs.

At the time, Mr Lithgow was head of communications for the UK Independence Party (UKIP) - for which he contested the seat of Bognor Regis and Littlehampton upate in the 2005 general election.

Unsurprisingly, this period in his life does not feature in his online resume on LinkedIn, the networking site. Instead he notes that since September 2006 he has run George Berkeley PR, a public relations company is in legal work. The company is the same George Berkeley which has been retained as the paid-for PR company representing LAN. LAN is run as a not-for-profit campaign, but members are required to stump up a joining fee of as much as ￡ 293.75, rising to ￡ 300 from January 1.

Given LAN claims to have more than 3,500 members, its total membership due - when all paid up - could currently exceed ￡ 1 m.

According to LAN's guiding "Rules, Case, Methodology" document, George Berkeley will be paid a total of ￡ 50 more VAT per member obstet action group, phased through different stages of the campaign, with the full amount only payable if compensation is won.

Mr Lithgow told last Monday's London meeting that the group needs 25,000 to 30,000 members to fund the necessary litigation, implying a potential ￡ 1. 5 m windfall for George Berkeley, 90pc of the shares of which are controlled by Mr Lithgow and wife, Amanda.

However, Ms Beer, a consumer champion in her own right, who is not being paid for her services, believes that the commercial nature of the group is the only way to bring an action, p. hundreds of letters she has had from Lloyds shareholders who have called it "their lifeline".

"This is a professional group of people who are being paid to bring an action," she says. "It's nothing more deceitful than that." "It's paying for services." Of Mr Lithgow's potential compensation, she said: "Position he hasn haven't been paid anything." He's now taken something. "But it's not going to make him millions."

However, when contacted by The Sunday Telegraph, Caroline Lucas, the Green Party MP for Brighton Pavilion who has spoken at a LAN meeting, said she was not aware of Mr Lithgow's recent past or the possible remuneration. But said she did not wish to how further.

Mr Lithgow told The Sunday Telegraph that he does not own any Lloyds shares himself. But he did say that his wife Amanda - with whom he spends most of the year in their home in the Dordogne, southern France - is a Lloyds shareholder, as is his mother. His mother, Jillian Timmis is the 76-year-old chairman of LAN. Although her face and her name adorn its website, there is no apparent reference on the site that she and Mr Lithgow are related.

The trio - Mr and Mrs Lithgow and his mother - sat on the interim committee of LAN, which recruited the various service providers, including George Berkeley, unelected and set the payment charges.

In October, LAN members were asked to consider standing for election to the committee, however, after a lack of applicants, four new members were earlier this week automatiquement co-crisis on to it, alongside Mrs. Timmis who remains in place.

The other two members of the interim committee - who, along with Mr and Mrs Lithgow have now stood down - were Wynne and Lucille Edwards from Reading, who stand to benefit because of their interest in the company running LAN's administration and website.

eSystems Case Management will be paid ￡ 100 per member in the initial investigation stage alone, meaning that if LAN recruits the 30,000 members Mr Lithgow said publicly he is aiming for, it could make at least ￡ 3 m more further fees if the box is eventually successful.

Some 51pc of eSystems case management's shares are owned by eSystems and 49pc by eSystem administration.

In spite of exhaustive searches at Companies House, the ultimate beneficiary of eSystems could not be established this weekend.

However, it is clear that eSystem administration is controlled by Lucille Edwards - owning 100pc of its shares - meaning the couple stand to net just less than half the potential ￡ 3 m. No. mention of Ms Edwards's involvement in eSystems is made apparent on the website.

In its latest newsletter, LAN points out that in spite of the contracts in place, the "service providers" - which include George Berkeley and eSystems Case Management - have not taken payments in order to aid the group's cash flow. But Mr Lithgow confirmed that they are still owed the amounts and have not waived them.

Chris Hulme, who sits on the board of the UK Shareholders' Association UKSA) and cochair of is its Northern Rock action group, believes that some of LAN's practices are unusual: "One of the key things we've found is that a large amount of [the] membership of these groups are pensioners, and they simply can't afford to pay huge amounts in fees."

Instead, the UKSA has recently attempted to piggy-back institutional shareholders - with SRM and RAB in the case of Northern Rock - developing seal box. He also criticised the lack of apparent openness from LAN, with members given only an email address to put questions or address concerns, when the UKSA board provides the investing public with its home and mobile phone numbers.

But his biggest criticism is LAN's claim that shareholders have to be part of the group in order to benefit from a successful action: "If the test case is won, it would be easily replicated if based on the same case law;" I don't think that precludes shareholders from taking the same action. "The potential is that all of Lloyds' could benefit shareholders."

Mr Lithgow and LAN's raft of legal advisers do not agree, however, with solicitor Jim Rai, of Winckworth Sherwood, telling Monday's meeting that investors are taking a "big chance" by not coming into the group. LAN has now set a cut-off date of April 1 next year by which time members must join up, with more recruitment roadshows planned for the new year.

"The more members there are, the better that the group can afford the insurance to protect the members." "It's not because they're trying to bind to them, it's trying to have force and strength of numbers," added Ms Beer, who said that while she would love to spearhead a non-commercial Lloyds campaign, she does not believe such a campaign is possible under the UK legal framework.

Mr Lithgow said: "there's been two years of solid work that has gone into this, work that is providing an opportunity for people to find justice in a very sophisticated and very complex case." He also points out that if the group wins its case, all fees paid will be recoverable costs. "When you mentioned what George Berkeley, the firm may be able to earn, I hope it does but that depends, I think it's unlikely," Mr Lithgow said.

It remains very much the case, however, that no LAN accounts have yet been published in spite of the potential ￡ 1 m-plus the association has collected so far, with no clarification as to how much money the group has available to take on "Britain's biggest bank robbery" gold how exactly it is being spent. "This is a professional group of people being paid to bring an action" among simply cannot afford to pay huge amounts in fees. ""

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