Eleven north London tax defaulters have been named and shamed by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) after investigators found they deliberately underpaid tax.
The government’s latest deliberate defaulters list, published on 2 October, spans Shoreditch, Harrow, Wembley, Harlesden, Harringay and Tottenham. The cases range from a Shoreditch goods importer that failed to pay £1.4 million in tax and duty to a Harrow kebab shop, a Brent Chinese takeaway and a Tottenham property developer.
The heaviest penalty fell on Saisco Ltd, an importer and distributor of goods based at Kemp House on City Road in Old Street. The company failed to pay tax or duty of £1,424,627 and was fined £1,196,687.
Two further businesses at the same Kemp House address were also named. Rich Couture Ltd failed to pay £574,921 in tax or duty and was fined £517,428, while Rich Luxe Limited, a wholesaler of garments and fashion accessories, failed to pay £401,745 and was fined £361,570.
Elsewhere on the list, Juan Zhang of Cavendish Road in Harringay failed to pay tax on £237,771 of rental income and was fined £151,579.
Purvin Trading Limited, which operated convenience stores under the Spar, Budgens and Premier names including a shop on Harrow Road in Wembley, was found to have avoided tax on £236,826 of goods and fined £153,356.
AMCAN Food Limited, which formerly traded as the Chasing Dragon Chinese takeaway on Harlesden High Street in Brent, deliberately underpaid £130,253 of tax between April 2020 and 2025. It was fined £72,298.
Carpenter Emmett Fitzpatrick of Palmerston Road in Harrow failed to pay tax on £118,798 between April 2017 and April 2024 and was fined £83,158, while Kebab City on Station Road in Harrow failed to pay tax on £95,682 of income and was fined £66,986.
SA Film, a production company based at the Winsor and Newton Building on Whitefriars Avenue in Harrow, avoided £98,016 of tax in the 2022-23 financial year and was found to owe the entire sum.
Completing the north London entries, ventilation subcontractor Izabela Kocsis of Dagmar Avenue in Wembley was found to have avoided tax on £57,491 and was held liable for £41,824, and property developer Elimelech Shif of Gladesmore Road in Tottenham was found to have avoided tax on £55,260 between April 2017 and 2024 and fined £34,537.
What is HMRC’s tax defaulters list?
HMRC publishes the names of people and businesses it has investigated and penalised for making deliberate errors in their tax returns, or for deliberately failing to comply with their tax obligations. Only deliberate cases make the list: the publication is a naming-and-shaming measure, with the publicity itself intended to deter others from doing the same.
The revenue updates the list as investigations conclude and penalties are imposed. A similar publication days earlier named tax defaulters across south-east London, including cases in Bromley, Lewisham and Greenwich.
Small firms in the spotlight
The north London cases show how HMRC enforcement reaches well beyond large corporations. The list mixes goods importers and garment wholesalers with the independent shops, takeaways and tradespeople that make up much of the local economy on high streets from Harlesden to Harrow.
Cash-heavy sectors such as takeaways and convenience stores have long faced close attention from tax inspectors, and several of the latest penalties concern businesses of exactly that kind. Landlords and property developers also feature, reflecting continued scrutiny of undeclared rental income.
The scale of unpaid tax across the capital remains a wider concern: London underpays an estimated £3.1 billion a year in property tax, according to the Resolution Foundation, while councils keep wrestling with stretched budgets – Westminster has frozen council tax while warning of an £88 million shortfall.
In the largest cases the fines run into the hundreds of thousands of pounds – a costly reminder that getting tax deliberately wrong carries consequences well beyond the sums originally owed.
