Three North East firms have been named and shamed by HMRC for almost £800,000 worth of unpaid tax between them.

HMRC publishes details every three months of people and businesses given financial penalties for failing to comply with tax obligations, or deliberately filing errors in tax returns.

Details are only released when a person or business has made at least one deliberate default on more than £25,000.

The latest list was released on Tuesday (July 9).

Among those named and shamed on a newly released list New PWR NKU Limited, a Houghton-based freight firm, was charged whopping penalties of more than £300k on £445,949 of defaulted tax spanning just 18 months.

And the business behind an Easington chicken shop was charged penalties of more than £130k for defaulted tax.

In total £791,650.53 of defaulted tax was racked up by the three businesses in our region.

Here are the names of those named and shamed on the list published this week:

New PWR NKU Limited

New PWR NKU Limited, a freight transportation firm formerly of 16 Mill Terrace, Shiney Row, Houghton-le-Spring, DH4 4QZ, defaulted on a whopping £445,949 worth of tax in just 18 months between March 2021 and September 2022.

The business was charged penalties of £312,164.30. It is currently going through the liquidation process.

Dunne and Family Limited (trading as Crown Chicken Easington)

This chicken takeaway firm, formerly of Unit 1, 100 Seaside Lane, Easington in County Durham racked up a total of £263,241.91 of defaulted tax.

The brand, owned by Dunne and Family Limited which went into liquidation in February 2024 defaulted during a four-year period between October 2017 and March 2021, and was charged penalties of £131,569.67.

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Freshprepare Ltd

Freshprepare Ltd, a takeaway formerly of 3 Eddison Road in Washington failed to pay £82,459.62 of tax from April 2020, shortly after the start of the Covid lockdown, to April 2022.

The company was charged penalties of £76,275.13.

*The information above was listed on the government website on the day this story was published.