Abbey Forwarding v HMRC

In Abbey Forwarding v HMRC [2015] EWHC 225 (6 February 2015) the High Court ordered an inquiry as to damages on an undertaking given by HMRC.

HMRC had suspected that Abbey was heavily involved in the fraudulent evasion of excise duty on alcoholic goods. It successfully presented a petition to wind up Abbey together with an application for the appointment of a provisional liquidator.

Counsel for the provisional liquidator immediately applied for a worldwide freezing order against three out of Abbey’s four directors and issued misfeasance proceedings against these directors. At the misfeasance proceedings the High Court found that there had been no evasion of duty in relation to the relevant assessments but the liquidator refused to appeal against HMRC’s assessments. The directors were subsequently authorised to appeal to the FTT on behalf of Abbey. Two days before the hearing HMRC withdrew the assessments ...