Why are there snail breeding farms in London’s most expensive buildings?

Companies and landlords are setting up underground snail breeding rackets in another way to avoid paying their share of tax.

Images show boxes sat in a modern but empty office space, sealed with ‘L’Escargotiere’, which translates to ‘The Snail Farm’.

Westminster Council has raided a £32 million office block on Old Marylebone Road, where shell companies are, ironically, setting up snail breeding business.

And just a few doors down, a short walk away from Hyde Park, a second empty office space showed more boxes of the animals lying unattended.

In total, four snail breeding companies were discovered by Westminster Council, who later realised have been cheated out of £280,000.

For months, Metro has been tracking down who is breeding these snails – one Mr Terence Ball – and who is hiring them in the first place.

Despite previous reports showing Mr Ball to be a passionate snail breeder, his friend and colleague said they knew they were helping people avoid tax – but the finger shouldn’t be pointed at them.

So what is this bizarre farming-tax avoidance scheme, and just how many have popped up over London?

Snail breeding as tax evasion

Shell companies are acquiring the gastropods to claim their empty buildings are ‘agricultural facilities’ to get out of paying business rates.

Judging by the pictures, all this requires is getting a snail breeding business to set up a couple of boxes on the ground.

But in order to achieve an exemption as a snail farm an application must be made to the Valuation Office, which is an agency of HMRC.

In these cases, no such application is ever made, presumably on the basis that the Valuation Office would inevitably reject any application.

Which snail breeding companies have been caught?

Coincidentally, all four companies which have been caught by the council have the same owner.

L’Escargotiere (A22) was first set up in the empty office on Old Marylebone Road in 2022.

According to their website, they breed and sell Helix Aspersa Muller – a common garden snail – to ‘superior restaurants, prestigious hotels and gastro pubs’.

But they were closed by the Insolvency Service in 2024 after the council complained they had not paid their business rates.

It did not take long for L’Escargotiere (A23) to then appear in its place, and has been there ever since.

Westminster Council says both businesses owe £118,161.46 and £23,707.39 respectively.

Snai1 Primary Products Limited, and Snai1 Primary Products (2023) Limited were also raided by the council.

The former is said to owe £6,555.39 and the latter owes a huge £137,952.42.

Who is running these companies?

According to Companies House, apparent snail enthusiast Terence Ball is director of all of these businesses.

He also just so happens to be the director of empty property rates solutions business BoyceBrook, which dubs itself the ‘Canceller of the Exchequer’.

It is unclear if the dozens or so of boxes inside the properties can fund the cost of buildings, which can go around £61,000 a year.

Paul Agnew, who works with Mr Ball, admitted to Metro they are ‘in essence’ allowing landlords to get away with not paying business rates.

He said: ‘We are not trying to take money away from anybody, it’s that people are paying massive amounts for an empty building with no tenants in, and this is they way we don’t have to.’

But he said the finger shouldn’t be pointed at Terence, who he said is an elderly man who is in and out of hospital, but the businesses who are hiring them.

‘It’s not Terry who isn’t paying his business rates,’ Paul said. ‘Other businesses within Westminster are using L’Escargotiere for this purpose. He’s not doing anything wrong.’

Who is in charge of the buildings?

The building on Marylebone Road belongs to Winchester Properties LTD, and managed by Dorchester Estates.

Metro has made numerous attempts for comment from the estates company but has yet to receive a reply.

Meanwhile Winchester Properties Limited, which is registered as an overseas company in the Virgin Islands, has only a dentistry listed as their correspondence address in London.

Westminster Council are now wanting tougher laws to stop landlords and businesses from exploiting agricultural tax breaks, but local authorities have largely been left to sort the problem out on their own.

No general anti-avoidance legislation which covers the type of scheme exists in England, making it difficult to either boot out or order the snail companies to pay.

Cllr Adam Hug, leader of Westminster City Council, said: ‘Rather than unscrupulous traders dropping on one avoidance scheme after another, it would be good to see a general clause on business rates avoidance and evasion which stops these kinds of activities in their tracks.

‘As a local authority with limited resources, we enforce wherever we can. We will be on the trail of the snail racketeers or anyone else who thinks they can cheat the taxpayer.’

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

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