But now this newspaper can exclusively reveal Veenendaal is living in a sleepy market town with his wife and two children and running his own business.

But beneath the veneer of respectability lies an extreme past – Veenendaal was once the personal bodyguard and righthand man of the infamous racist leader Eugene Terreblanche.

He also led the Johannesburg branch of white-power group the Afrikaner Resistance Movement, which fought for a white-only state in South Africa during apartheid.

The right-wing activist was believed to be involved in a terror attack in 1989 in which a United Nations building in Namibia was blown up, killing a black security guard.

“One shocking snap shows a black man lying dead in a trench while others show Veenendaal in his uniform holding guns”

But he and others escaped from custody just before their trial by overpowering two police officers, one of whom was shot and killed.

He fled to South Africa where he was arrested a year later as one of nine white extremists thought to be behind a series of bombings aimed at anti-apartheid targets including newspaper offices, bus terminals and a synagogue.

In 1997 he came to the UK where he has lived ever since, despite international arrest warrants being issued against him. His company Onesys Financial Limited is now offering payday loans with a whopping interest rate of 2,330%.

The firm claims online it draws on “17 years of experience” and lists its values as honesty and “striving to do our very best” for customers. The business also offers unsecured personal loans and debt collection – boasting a “proven success rate” at making people pay back money owed.

Last week Veenendaal refused to talk to our reporter about his shady past when we approached him in the industrial yard in Wisbech where he runs his business.

He also has a family website on which he says he, his wife Tracy and sons Darryl and De la Rey are “fiercely proud” of their “rich historical and cultural background”.

Both sons are promising rugby stars – Darryl plays for Bedford Blues in England’s Championship and De La Rey has played for England Counties under-20s.

The site details the family’s achievements, as well as hundreds of photos – with one section even showing pictures of Veenendaal’s time in South Africa’s military, fighting in the “Bush War” in Namibia and Angola.

One shocking snap shows a black man lying dead in a trench while others show Veenendaal in his uniform holding guns.

In one, a black man is tied up and blindfolded as he is interrogated and another shows a military truck with a corpse tied to the top of the wheel rim.

Before setting up his payday loans business Veenendaal worked for Cambridgeshire County Council in the education and ICT department.

A spokesman confirmed the council knew about the allegations against him but said: “A Criminal Records Bureau check was carried out and there was no reason not to employ him.”

MEANWHILE, here’s a letter I wrote to good ol’ Lenny’s former employer five years ago:

To: Cambridgeshire Education ICT Service                                               7 July 2008

42 West Street
Cambridgeshire
PE29 2HJ

United Kingdom

Dear Sir,

On behalf of all right-thinking South Africans, allow me to congratulate you on your decision to continue employing one of our Boer heroes, Leonard Veenendaal, in the face of mounting calls from limp-wristed liberals for him to be prosecuted for murder.

As you are undoubtedly aware, your technical services manager fled South Africa in 1997 after being persecuted by the Black government for simply having done his duty in trying to prevent Namibia from falling into the hands of the communists in 1989. It takes a special kind of man to bomb a United Nations office and then shoot his way out of police custody. It’s a shame that a security guard and a policeman had to die, but at least neither of them was white.

Leonard might have told you that his former boss, a lovely man by the name of Eugene Terreblanche, is busy getting the old group together again. Eugene used to call Lenny “my little fanatic” and I should warn you that the AWB will probably try to poach him from you. Reliable bodyguards are so hard to find these days.

Friends in the White Power movement tell me that Leonard and his wife, Tracy, and their two sons, Darryl and De La Rey, are living in a charming house in Wisbech where Lenny coaches the local school rugby team and enjoys attending the odd National Front rally on weekends. Good for him! After all he has been through, he deserves his place in the sun. Not that Wisbech gets much.

I have a favour to ask. At the moment, there are 21 equally patriotic South Africans facing a bunch of trumped up charges in Pretoria. They belong to a group called the Boeremag that used to meet twice a week for social activities such as brandy tasting, darts and bomb-making competitions. When the trial is finished, they will need jobs and I was hoping that you would be able to take them on board. You won’t regret it, I promise. Their English might not be the best, but these guys will kill for you.

Please tell Leonard not to worry about a thing. The Namibians won’t be trying to extradite him any time soon because the original docket is in Afrikaans and after 19 years prosecutors still haven’t been able to find anyone to translate it. Besides, by granting Leonard residency in Britain, the Home Office has shown that it will not tolerate discrimination against intolerant people who discriminate. The Labour Party is nothing if not highly principled.

I trust you will continue doing all you can to keep the darkies out of Cambridgeshire’s education system. Men like Leonard are all that stand between us and a complete breakdown of civilisation. I need not remind you that if Cecil John Rhodes had been black, we would all be speaking Swahili today.

Yours truly,

Ben Trovato (Imperial Lizard)

• Messages of support can be sent to Lenny at Leonard.Veenendaal@cambridgeshire.gov.uk. You may also want to email Home Secretary Jacqui Smith at smithjj@parliament.uk to thank her for providing a safe haven to people like Leonard Veenendaal and other victims of apartheid.