7:05 am, March 26, 2026
Businesses and individuals from across the motor trade have been fined a staggering £324,000 after racking up unpaid tax bills of more than half-a-million pounds.
That is according to a new list, released by HMRC, which names and shames anyone who has ‘deliberately defaulted’ on their tax bills.
It is hoped that the list, which includes a host of automotive outfits, will discourage others from failing to pay tax.
The biggest fine was issued to Jonathan Naylor, of Barnsley, who worked in vehicle tuning services. HMRC says that he avoided £147,548.73 in tax between April 2018 and April 2021.
His actions resulted in a penalty of £69,992.46, but he was far from the only figure in the motor trade to feature on the list.
There was also a fine for Warwick-based car sales and waste management trader Jeffrey James, who was penalised £66,724.59 over an unpaid tax bill of £130,529.81 spanning three separate periods between 2010 and 2022.
Elsewhere, Tottenham-based used car dealer Fast Drive Ltd was fined £84,175 for defaulting on £120,250 of tax between August 2023 and April 2024, while Stanway Automotive Limited – a repair centre in Colchester – was slapped with a £53,614.80 fine for unpaid tax of £89,358 between March 2020 and December 2022.
Birmingham car dealer Carl Jobe was also penalised £29,321.62 for his £57,212.97 tax bill, which dated between April 2010 and April 2015.
Finally, James Hurry, who runs a car body repair business in Aldershot, had an unpaid bill of £48,866.28 between April 2021 and April 2024. He was penalised £20,523.82.
Overall, the quintet racked up a combined tax bill of £593,765.79, for which they were handed penalties totalling £324,352.29.
The tax office says that the defaulters list only includes firms penalised under civil procedures and does not include criminal convictions for tax fraud.
Offenders details will remain available on the government’s website for the next year the authorities try to ‘encourage defaulters to engage with HMRC’.
On its website, tax office says of the lists: ‘HMRC will only publish the details where the taxpayer has not made a full and immediate disclosure when HMRC started to investigate or prior to any investigation.
‘The list relates to deliberate defaulters who’ve been dealt with using civil proceedings.
‘The list does not contain details of criminal convictions of those found guilty of a criminal offence in open court and therefore the verdict and sentence is a matter of public record.’
