WHAT WAS CLAIMED
An image shows a smashed-up UK pub following anti-immigration protests.
OUR VERDICT
False. The image shows a damaged Australian pub following a 2022 car crash.
AAP FACTCHECK - Images of a wrecked Australian pub are being used to fan the flames of civil unrest on the other side of the world.
It's being claimed that a photo shows destruction caused by supporters of a right-wing UK political party amid anti-immigration protests.
In fact, the image shows the damaged interior of a pub in Victoria following a car crash.
The false claims were first spread by an X user, who captioned the image: "Reform UK's mob smashed up this boozer in Dover on Saturday after the beach protest … Disgraceful. Where were the police?"
A screenshot of the X post has also been shared on Facebook with the caption "#scum".
Reform UK is led by key Brexit figure Nigel Farage.
The claim comes amid rising tensions in the UK relating to the housing of asylum seekers in hotels.
The recent disorder in the English town of Epping, near London, was sparked after an asylum seeker was charged with sexual assault.
However, there are clues that something is amiss in the original X post as the user's bio includes the phrase "Semper Parodius", mock-Latin that loosely translates to "Always Parody".
A reverse image search confirms the claim is false.
Rather than showing a UK pub in July 2025, the photo actually shows damage to the Border Inn in Apsley, western Victoria, in 2022 after a car crashed through a wall.
The car slammed into the pub just before 6am on November 22, before two people fled the scene, the ABC reported.
Although taken from a different angle, a photo of the car and the damage to the pub's interior in the ABC report matches the details in the image posted on X.
Two years later, the Border Inn's Facebook page posted an image of the damaged pub and the car taken from the same angle as the image shared in the false X post.
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