Worst civil 'defaulters' named & shamed

We found 112 tax defaulters working in haulage, freight or HGV driving who owed £33.5m between them.

- 

from the London area. The highest number of cases in a postcode area outside the capital is LE5, in Leicester, where there are 18 cases totalling £3.2m.

Nearly half appear to be linked to the city’s fast fashion industry. There are 46 firms from China on the list and eight from Hong Kong. The five biggest defaulters from these areas were online retailers who owed HMRC £34.6m. But there are likely to be more Chinese-linked firms using UK addresses. The next biggest group was 38 cases from Poland, including five hauliers owing a collective £16.9m.

Others named include a “hologram technology” firm called Silvermask Limited, set up by 42-year-old Australian Ronald Ryan in August 2020. It racked up an unpaid £16.6m tax bill in four months.