Up to 100 low-paid Derbyshire workers could 'finally' receive a pay-out over tax-free bonuses scandal

Cleaners, caterers and other low paid employees at Roadchef motorway service stations, including Tibshelf on the M1, were promised a tax-free bonus for their hard work in the 1980s.

However, the UK’s first Employee Share Ownership Plan turned into a nightmare with workers denied the shares they were promised and left in financial limbo by HMRC – with payments still pending 30 years on.

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Bolsover MP Mark Fletcher has now assisted Roadchef Employees Benefits Trust (REBLT), which is working to recover funds for beneficiaries, by writing to the Treasury and HMRC in a bid to bring resolution.

Christopher Smith, chairman of REBTL, said: “The hardworking people at Tibshelf Roadchef service station are among thousands of low paid people who have waited far too long to get their dues, some dying without ever receiving a penny.

"I met Mark Fletcher to discuss this matter which affects over 100 of his constituents and their families and know he’s written to HMRC to help bring an end to this matter.

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"HMRC has previously said on the record that no tax should be payable on this scheme and continually contradicted their own advice with dither and delay.”

The scandal emerged when the shares were transferred into a separate trust and the company was sold to a Japanese bank in 1998 for £75m.

In 2003, legislation was set out to exempt schemes such as this from tax. But the trust at the time had been stripped of its assets and couldn’t be included in the legislation to give employee share schemes exemptions from tax.

Funds were secured in 2010 to mount a legal challenge and a High Court settlement was achieved in 2014, but it emerged millions of pounds relating to the scheme had wrongly been paid in tax.

Although HMRC paid the money back to the employee trust in September 2018, ‘contradiction’ between officials has led to further delay, according to the trust.

An HMRC spokesperson said: “Due to taxpayer confidentiality, we cannot comment on the specifics of the case, but are working to bring it to a conclusion.”

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