The founder of premium minicab firm Addison Lee has failed to overturn a £20.5m tax bill from HMRC after arguing that he should be treated as a non-dom in spite of having lived in England for most of his life.

Sir John Griffin, aged 84, who was born in England in 1942 to Irish parents and returned to England when he was nine after several years in Ireland, told the first tier tribunal in London he “was besotted with, infatuated with Ireland” and argued he should be treated with a non-dom status because of this.

“I believe that I have always been and am Irish,” Griffin said, citing investments in Irish businesses and properties and County Kerry.

In a judgment handed down on Thursday, the London tribunal ruled in HMRC’s favour.

The court said it was “satisfied” to conclude that by 5 April 2013, Griffin “had settled in England in every meaningful sense.”

“England was where he had established his home, raised his family, built his business, accumulated his wealth and organised his personal, social and professional life,” Tribunal judge Michaela Snelders said.

“Although he retained a powerful emotional attachment to Ireland and a genuine hope that he might one day spend more time there, those sentiments never crystallised into a sufficiently definite intention to make Ireland his permanent home,” Snelders added.

As part of his claim, Griffin argued that he should receive the same domicile status as his father did when he arrived in England from Ireland to work in 1935, and under UK law a child’s domicile status is the same as their father’s if their parents were married at the time of birth.

However, the court found that Griffin’s domicile status would have changed when his father’s chosen domicile became England in 1959.

HMRC brought its £20.5m claim against Griffin after it challenged the domicile status on his self-assessment tax returns from 2013 to 2020 which would have allowed him to avoid paying UK taxes on foreign income outside of the UK.

The taxi entrepreneur sold his shares in Addison Lee in 2013 to private equity firm The Carlyle Group, before deploying millions of pounds into offshore investments, including £10m into a Brazilian iron ore venture.

“We welcome this decision, which confirms that Mr Griffin was domiciled in England during the years in question,” HMRC said.

Addison Lee workers rights battle

In January last year, an employment tribunal found in favour of over 700 taxi drivers after a dispute over Addison Lee’s backdated compensation for holiday pay and loss of earnings, classifying them officially as workers.

Law firm Leigh Day brought legal proceedings against the firm back in 2017 and argued that its 700 clients were workers rather than self-employed independent contractors.

Griffin and Addison Lee were contacted for comment.