The supreme court is calling for action to find out why an increasing number of people in the Netherlands identify as “sovereign citizens” who refuse to recognise the state or rule of law.

In an interview with Trouw at the weekend, supreme court president Dineke de Groot said the court receives thousands of letters from people who think they can cut themselves off ordinary society by refusing to pay tax, health insurance or rent, for example. It is highly unusual for the supreme court, which only pronounces on court cases, to comment on social issues.

“We have to try to understand what is motivating these people. {..} They are being given false information and told they don’t have to pay any bills. But it ends with the bailiff,” De Groot told the paper.

The national anti-terrorism group NCTV puts the number of sovereign citizens, or autonomen in Dutch, at least 10,000, and possibly more.

According to the national security service AIVD the group forms part of a broader movement which promotes “anti-institutional extremism”, to combat a “malevolent elite” allegedly out to oppress citizens.

The NCTV is concerned some members of the movement may resort to violence. In November Gorinchem mayor Reini Melissant was accosted by a man in the street who threatened to kill her. The man, who said he was “autonomous” complained about the “power of the mayor” and said “the bullets are coming”.

In a first attempt by the state to tackle the problem, the tax office has successfully sued a man who earns a living writing legal letters to a variety of institutions on behalf of “autonomous people”. He was found guilty of spreading “clearly false” information.

The man is now forbidden to put the information on his website but is appealing against the sentence.