Around 30 snails are allegedly being kept in 15 crates on the ground floor at Imperial Buildings, Dale Street - a main thoroughfare in the business district of Liverpool city centre.
Town hall bosses suspect a businessman has set up a 'tactical' snail farm in a city centre office block as part of a bizarre scam to avoid paying tax.
Unlike tax evasion, tax avoidance is not a criminal offence. But it is estimated that schemes to minimise and avoid tax across the UK cost about £1.8bn last year. Mr Ball is also the director of BoyceBrook, which describes itself as an 'empty property rates solutions' firm. Mr Ball also runs two other snail firms, including L'Escargotiere. All three are based in Ribchester, a village in the Ribble Valley, near Preston, Lancashire.He told BBC News that 15 crates containing two snails each could 'create 1000 snail eggs, in the right environment'.
Business rates for Imperial Buildings would be around £61,000 a year, although it is not known whether the snail farm lease is for the entire complex or just the lower ground floor In 2021, the High Court ruled that a snail farm tenancy deal between a landlord in Leeds and the management company Crusader, where Mr Ball was also a director, was a 'sham'.
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