Five businesses and individuals from Bromley, Lewisham and Greenwich have been publicly named by HMRC as deliberate tax defaulters, with more than £331,000 in tax and £204,000 in penalties attached to their cases.
The names appear on the tax authority’s latest quarterly list of deliberate defaulters, which publishes the details of people and companies penalised for deliberately getting their tax affairs wrong. Each of the five south-east London entries carries a hefty financial penalty on top of the tax itself.
Bromley’s biggest case: £125,000 underpaid
The largest local default involves MSC Contracts Limited, a dry lining and decorating contractor formerly based on Ravensbourne Road in Bromley. Between November 2022 and January 2024 the company underpaid £125,448 in tax, and HMRC charged penalties of £70,250.88 on top.
Also named in Bromley is Terry Dennis Boxell, a publican whose listed address is in Shorne Close, Orpington. He underpaid £42,821.54 in tax across the 2020-21 to 2022-23 tax years, attracting penalties of £29,975.07.
Two Lewisham firms listed
In Lewisham, Abbey Auto Services Ltd — an MOT and vehicle repairs business on Nightingale Grove in Hither Green — underpaid £78,226.43 in tax between November 2017 and October 2019. The company faces further penalties of £41,068.87.
MDS Builders Ltd, a construction company based in Woodlands Street, Lewisham, completes the borough’s entries. It underpaid £36,470.76 in tax between September 2023 and June 2024, with penalties of £31,000.14 imposed.
Greenwich carpenter named
The Greenwich entry is Iulian Coteanu, a carpenter formerly listed at Birch Tree House, Fairlawn, in Charlton. He underpaid £48,376.40 in tax between April 2017 and April 2023 and was handed penalties totalling £32,049.34.
Combined, the five cases account for £331,343.13 in tax on which penalties were based, and £204,344.30 in penalties.
How HMRC’s naming scheme works
HMRC names deliberate defaulters under section 94 of the Finance Act 2009. A name is published only after an investigation has led to penalties for deliberate errors in tax returns or deliberately failing to comply with tax obligations — and only once those penalties are final, meaning the appeal window has closed, any appeal has been decided, or a settlement has been agreed.
There is a steep entry bar: the penalties must involve tax of more than £50,000. And there is a way off the list before ever appearing on it — anyone who earns the maximum reduction of their penalties by fully disclosing the defaults is not published at all. Names stay up for no longer than 12 months from first publication.
The lists are released quarterly on GOV.UK as downloadable spreadsheets. The current edition covers September 2026 and the page was updated on 2 October 2026.
What the penalties actually mean
Being named is only part of the punishment. The penalties — £70,250.88 in the largest local case — are charged on top of the tax itself, and they scale with how HMRC views the behaviour. Those who come forward, disclose fully and cooperate can reduce their penalties significantly; as the naming rules show, full disclosure can even keep a name off the public list entirely.
It is also worth knowing what the published numbers do and do not show. HMRC says the amounts relate to the tax on which the penalties are based and the penalties charged — they do not necessarily represent the taxpayer’s full default, which can be larger.
Large financial penalties are a familiar tool across enforcement. Courts recently ordered a Wagner-linked arsonist to pay £160,000 to the victims of a Leyton warehouse attack, while a Woodford Green people smuggler was told to repay £290,000 or spend longer behind bars.
How to check the list yourself
The full lists are published on the GOV.UK page “Details of deliberate tax defaulters”, which holds the current quarterly spreadsheet alongside earlier editions. Because names are removed after 12 months, only the most recent cases are ever visible — so the September 2026 list is the one to check for the latest names.
A name on the list is not the whole story
HMRC cautions against treating the list as a current portrait of those named. People on it may have changed their behaviour, moved address or stopped trading altogether. A business trading today from one of the listed addresses may have no connection with the defaulter — or may simply share a name under entirely new management.
The list lands as the cost of tax stays firmly in the headlines for Londoners: Wandsworth’s Band D council tax is set to almost double to £1,978, among the sharpest rises in the capital.
