HMRC often highlights the lavish lifestyles funded by tax fraud, detailing collections of sports cars, luxury holidays and designer goods uncovered during investigations.

But while the public might picture dawn raids ending with boxes of documents and computer hard drives being carted away, investigators can also leave with something rather more eye-catching.

The latest auction of assets seized during HMRC enforcement operations goes live at Wilsons Auctions on 29 October.

Among the lots are five watches worth around £1m recovered during an HMRC payroll fraud probe, forming part of a ‘£7m collection of luxury timepieces’ seized during a raid by tax investigators.

The most eye-catching watch in the sale is a Philippe Dufour Simplicity, with a classic design in rose gold described by the auction house as ‘one of the purest expressions of hand-finished watchmaking in the world’. One of these coveted watches sold for over £500,000 at an auction in the States last year.

Al