Gary Smith

Consumer Law & B2B Lawyer helping people and SME recover their losses for breach of contract, Mis sold products and services.

[Gary Smith @G8GWS]

@5Pillarsuk You’re everything that’s wrong with the UK you leftist turd!

[Gary Smith @G8GWS]

https://t.co/L9iwWiezBf

[Gary Smith @G8GWS]

https://t.co/XzyO03uGXy

[Artur Nadolny @ArturNadol7566]

HMRC IS SHUTTING DOWN BUSINESSES THAT HAVE DONE NOTHING WRONG. TWO INSIDERS JUST TOLD ME HOW BAD IT REALLY IS.

Gary Smith is CEO and Legal Director at Meridian Legal Services. Ian Sutton is a former senior HMRC tax inspector who now runs VATable, a company based in Cardiff that helps businesses fight HMRC debt and repayment disputes.

Both of them reached out to me this week. What they described should be on every front page in the country.

It isn't.

Here is what is happening in simple terms.

HMRC has the legal power to file something called a winding-up petition against a business. Think of it as HMRC asking a court to forcibly shut your company down and liquidate it.

The moment that petition is advertised publicly, your bank sees it, your suppliers see it, your customers see it. The damage to your business starts before you even get to court.

In a single year, the number of winding-up petitions filed by HMRC surged from 1,414 to 36,686. That is not a targeted crackdown on fraudsters. That is an institution running enforcement at industrial scale with almost no public scrutiny.

Some of the businesses being hit are solvent. They are not failing. They are not fraudulent. They are viable, functioning companies with employees and customers. HMRC is pursuing them anyway.

In some of those cases Ian and Gary have seen first-hand, HMRC has already wound the business up before anyone could stop it. Done. Gone. Irreversible harm to owners and their families.

Ian's company VATable was set up precisely because this is happening. He and his colleagues spent their careers inside HMRC. They know exactly how the enforcement machine works, what letters mean, what the escalation process looks like, and crucially, where HMRC is overstepping.

They now use that knowledge to fight back on behalf of the businesses being targeted.

Gary's firm Meridian Legal Services does the legal work to try to recover what HMRC has destroyed. In some cases they win. In others the damage cannot be undone.

HMRC has adopted an increasingly aggressive stance on recovering tax debts, and that trend is expected to continue. The government handed HMRC £1.7 billion in the 2025 to hire thousands of new enforcement and debt collection staff.

That money is being spent right now. Small businesses across the UK are on the receiving end.

If your business has received correspondence from HMRC that feels disproportionate or aggressive, do not ignore it and do not try to handle it alone.

Reach out to Ian Sutton at VATable or contact Gary Smith at Meridian Legal Services. These are people who know exactly how this machine works and how to stop it.

Other sources: Tax Expert | Bishop Fleming | Public Accounts Committee

@G8GWS
@premnsikka
@TransparencyTF

[Gary Smith @G8GWS]

@stevemiddi1 @ArturNadol7566 @financialombuds @NatWestGroup Most people would accept a monkey over a FOS Investigator or even worse an Om’bad’sman. At least if the decision was made by a monkey you might have a better chance of understanding it!

[Gary Smith @G8GWS]

@veetmaya @ArturNadol7566 Please contact Meridian Legal Services 0121 516 0675

[Gary Smith @G8GWS]

@ArturNadol7566 You are correct Artur. The FOS and it's Ombudsman #GrahamStrideNoble and now #EmmaPeters having provided assurances in meetings immediately following the Judicial Review contacted the banks to discuss how the FOS and the Banks could work together to circumvent the JR findings

[Gary Smith @G8GWS]

@giframac @ArturNadol7566 @financialombuds Gillian if you are still seeking help you might want to give https://t.co/3Fzajpbzxc

[Gary Smith @G8GWS]

@ArturNadol7566 @financialombuds Using the #financialombudsmanservice should come with a serious health warning. No, this is not a joke! I witness firsthand the harm and detriment caused by this organisation. I see the fallout every day in the clients I represent.

[Gary Smith @G8GWS]

@ixshopping @ArturNadol7566 @BBCNews @carolinebilton @4Complc @MeridianLegals Lisa, I am the Legal Director at Meridian Legal. Meridian Legal is a Legal Services business whilst we are gathering evidence we cannot respond to immediately to every submission. The evidence is being gathered for the FOS Litigation Group so your evidence will not be ignored.

[Artur Nadolny @ArturNadol7566]

FOS EXPOSED IN UK PARLIAMENT

Financial Ombudsman Service is the body the public is told to trust when banks, lenders and financial firms get things wrong. It is supposed to protect consumers, sort out complaints fairly, and help people get redress when they have been misled or badly treated.

So it should be able to answer the most basic questions about its own backlog and delays.

On 27 February 2024, the @CommonsTreasury questioned the Financial Ombudsman Service @financialombuds. The session was chaired by Harriett Baldwin @hbaldwin. Abby Thomas appeared as Chief Executive and Chief Ombudsman.

During the hearing, Dame Angela Eagle @angelaeagle pressed FOS on the backlog of fractional timeshare complaints.

What makes this so alarming is how simple the questions were.

- How many cases were still stuck.
- How many people were still waiting.
- Why people had still not been paid.

FOS could not answer those questions.

When pushed on why people had still not got their money back, she did not give a straight answer.

That is what should worry people.

This was not a difficult ambush. These were basic public-interest questions from @UKParliament. This was the head of the body that is meant to protect consumers. Yet the answers were vague and wrapped in process instead of clarity.

It gets worse. After the hearing, the Treasury Committee had to write back and ask for the numbers that were missing.

If the ombudsman cannot answer simple questions under scrutiny, is it really fit to protect the public at all?

[Gary Smith @G8GWS]

@llywelyn_cymru @ElectionMapsUK I have never gone hungry or gone without, but neither has anyone who works for me, as I look after them.

If I weren’t doing what I am doing, it may be a different story for them!

[Gary Smith @G8GWS]

@RealGrahamGuest @ElectionMapsUK Tactical Voting is a concept that appears more since two-party politics are likely to be wiped out in the next election, whenever that may be, hopefully soon.

So those who think we are a democratic society, when suddenly it’s fashionable to interfere with the voting outcome

[Gary Smith @G8GWS]

@GodswillChemist @LivingTricks_ Teapot you Twat!

[Gary Smith @G8GWS]

@ArturNadol7566 @Channel4 @financialombuds Watch Dame Angela Eagle take down the FOS in ‘dodgy timeshares’ slur to Abby Thoms https://t.co/p1fAt09zk6

[Gary Smith @G8GWS]

Independent review turns to tackling Britain’s biggest crime https://t.co/K0huTb4mhv

[Gary Smith @G8GWS]

Petition: Make breaking a manifesto against the law and trigger a General Election https://t.co/HUPY7znCMe

[Gary Smith @G8GWS]

CALL AN IMMEDIATE GENERAL ELECTION TO END THE CHAOS OF THE CURRENT GOVERNMENT - Sign the Petition! https://t.co/DU1TTripPP via @UKChange

[Gary Smith @G8GWS]

@David_Bee_Bee @BBCPolitics @LBC @Iromg @JuliaHB1 Watch the difference when Labour take the stand. It's all for the leftys. The clapping is deafening when Labour enters the fray! Just watch.