The snail farm don: is this the most brazen tax avoidance scheme of all time?

"The farmer, a 79-year-old former shoe salesman called Terry Ball who has made and lost multiple fortunes, has been cheerfully telling me in great detail for several hours about how he was inspired by former Conservative minister Michael Gove to use snails to cheat local councils out of tens of millions of pounds in taxes. His method is simple. First, he sets up shell companies that breed snails in empty office blocks. Then he claims that the office block is legally, against all indications to the contrary, a farm, and therefore exempt from paying taxes."

"They're sexy things, chuckles Ball in a broad Blackburn accent, describing the speed with which two snails can incestuously multiply into dozens of specimens if they're left alone in a box for a few weeks. Snails love group sex and cannibalism, he warns. As the conversation drifts away from snail breeding he describes personal connections to a very prominent member of the House of Commons, his years hiding Italian mafia killers while they were on the run, and the potential market for snail salami."

"We're drinking with Joseph, a snail farm employee. An hour earlier I'd seen him using a cleaver to chop up lettuce to feed thousands of the animals. They're then shipped out to premises across the country, including four big snail farms they're currently running in London. Taking out his phone, Ball shows off pictures of another man, my mafia boss friend, posing with the legendary Napoli footballer Diego Maradona in the 1980s."

A rural Lancashire pub hosted a 79-year-old snail farmer, a convicted member of the Naples mafia, and a snail farm employee. The farmer, Terry Ball, detailed a scheme using shell companies to breed snails in empty office blocks and claim the premises are farms to avoid paying council taxes. The operation breeds vast numbers of snails quickly and ships them to multiple premises, including four large London farms. Ball described connections to a prominent MP, past efforts hiding Italian mafia killers, and a market for snail salami. Many seemingly improbable claims were later verifiable.

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