The perks of being a council tax snooper ... five-star hotels and trips to Disneyland

Officially, they were on fact-finding missions looking at methods of recalculating bills, such as "spy-in-the-sky" surveillance technology and Big Brother-style computer databases.

But staff from the Valuation Office Agency have been accused of squandering millions on their junkets, which included stays in five-star hotels, banquets and a visit to a Disneyland theme park.

One bureaucrat even mocked taxpayers at a dinner.

Scroll down for more

The Agency, which is responsible for council tax shake-ups, made 412 flights to countries including the U.S, Australia, Malaysia and Thailand between March 2006 and April this year. Using a complicated government formula, the Conservatives worked out that the Agency's staff travelled nearly 200,000 miles.

The Agency spent £4.9million on travel and subsistence in 2006-07.

Last August, staff attended the International Property Tax Institute's international conference at a five-star hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The Institute's website said: "The eight-course Chinese gala dinner was a highlight with speaker Paul Sanderson, from the VOA, presenting many humorous but true anecdotes on taxpayer complaints."

Staff also attended a summit at Disneyland in Hong Kong as part of the plan to re- evaluate bills for every home in England.

David Tretton, head of assessing business rates at the Agency, is even pictured in the staff magazine on a water slide.

Meanwhile, bureaucrats from the Department of Communities and Local Government, responsible for council tax, clocked up 650,000 air miles on 519 trips to five continents.

Eric Pickles, Tory local government spokesman, said: "The public will find it hard to understand why those overseeing England's parish councils and town halls need to travel to America, Asia and Africa.

"Gas-guzzling tax snoopers are flying around the world to swot up on using Big Brother computer databases and spies in the sky to hike up local taxes. As soon as a general election is over, I fear a council tax revaluation will openly commence to hike up bills using these tax tips picked up from abroad."

The Valuation Office Agency is responsible for revaluing a property when it changes hands, which often means it moves to a higher council tax band.

In March, the Lyons Review of local government funding called for two extra council tax bands.

Labour insisted this would not happen in England until after the next General Election - apparently fearing a backlash from middle-class voters.

When a revaluation was carried out in Wales three years ago, average bills rose 9 per cent despite Government promises that it would be "neutral".

Critics are convinced England will see similar increases as millions of homes are pushed into higher brackets.

The Mail has already revealed how council tax snoopers have taken more than 1.3million pictures of homes to calculate if their owners should pay higher bills.

And estate agents are being paid £10million of taxpayers' money by the Agency in return for details on homes.

The Agency said: "The VOA always seeks to find the most costeffectiveway of travelling; sometimes-this can be by air, whether for international, or more commonly travel within the UK.

"Staff occasionally travel abroad. This is usually by invitation as our expertise is world respected.

"In most cases this is at no, or minimal cost, to the taxpayer."

The Communities and Local Government Department said: "When necessary, the department undertakes some business trips linked to developing policy.

"Value for money is always sought and costs are kept to a minimum. No revaluation of council tax is currently taking place in England."