TV presenters, bankers and government advisers among 1,000 Britons linked to tax havens
- Broadcaster and former footballer John Fashanu on list
- Trade adviser Alpesh Patel also named on leaked database
- It also includes Goldman Sachs and Coutts, The Queen's bank
- Data has been leaked in tranches by a whistleblower since 2009
- HMRC keen to clamp down on wealth sheltered in tax havens
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Named: TV presenter and former footballer John Fashanu has appeared on a database of people linked to tax havens
A raft of high-profile Britons and organisations - including a former England footballer, a professor of medicine and a government trade adviser - have been revealed to have links to off-shore tax havens in a database leaked to HM Revenue & Customs.
They include ex-footballer John Fashanu and Alpesh Patel, a former Financial Times columnist who now advises UK Trade and Investment, as well as leading banks and financial institutions, including Goldman Sachs and Coutts, according to the Sunday Times.
The cache of 2.5m leaked documents, which was revealed to HMRC as it clamps down on wealth sheltered in tax havens, relate to the activities of companies and people in countries with low tax including Singapore, the British Virgin Islands (BVI) and the Cook Islands (CI).
It is thought the documents have been handed in stages to HMRC and authorities in America and Australia by a whistleblower since 2009, prompting a global investigation into alleged tax evasion.
One of the more unusual names on the list, which was separately obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, is Robert Stockley, a professor of medicine at University Hospital Birmingham.
Documents connected Mr Stockley, 63, a lung disease expert, to two BVI-incorporated companies, Brinko Test Ltd and International Criminal Resources, in turn linked to an account at the FirstCaribbean International Bank.
Professor Stockley said he had volunteered information about the firms to HMRC in the course of 'sorting my tax affairs'. Following negotiations he paid about £16,000 in extra tax.
Robert Stockley, a professor of medicine at University Hospital Birmingham, has been connected with two companies in the British Virgin Islands
The professor said ICR was a non-profit making entity for resource projects.
He said he set up Bronko Test with an American partner to handle earnings, amounting to just thousands of pounds, from a lung testing chart they had invented. The firm was transferred to the UK in 2008.
Although conceding the Caribbean territory was a well-known tax haven, Professor Stickley denied taking any dividends from the BVI company, saying: 'Our advice from accountants was that this was quite useful. I started to feel a bit uncomfortable, which is why we split it up and got it registered in the UK.'
He added HMRC 'knows everything' and that money has been declared and dues paid and signed up.
Mr Fashanu, 50, a former Premier League footballer for Wimbledon, was named on the list as a director of a telecommunications company set up in the BVI by a Nigerianm tycoon in 2003.
The now-TV presenter's manager, Ian Wilson, said his client was enlisted to the venture only as a 'figurehead' and that the firm, Communication Trends Network Ltd', had folded with heavy losses.
Star: Fashanu celebrates a goal with his Wimbledon teammates in 1993
'He neither put any money in, nor did he take any money out,' Mr Wilson said of Mr Fashanu, who has been domiciled in Nigeria since 2006 for tax reasons. Mr Fashanu has not been contacted by HMRC.
Mr Patel, who runs an asset management firm with offices in Mayfair, London, said he received a letter from HMRC three years ago in which the authorities said they believed he had offshore assets.
Documents from the BVI show the 41-year-old set up a company called AHM Investors in 2005, which was listed as 'dormant' the following year.
He told the Sunday Times that 'it never got off the ground; it never traded' and said the mindset of many financial firms had changed since the 2008 economic crisis, before which they would have set up 'tax efficient' offshoots in places such as the BVI 'without thinking'.
'They didn't put much of a moral layer on it then,' he said.
Goldman Sachs and Coutts bank also appeared on the data base
The list being trawled by HMRC also named 200 accountants and advisers.
A source at Goldman Sachs told the paper it may have appeared because it had acted n instructions from a client to move assets into an offshore trust and said it had not been contacted by HRMC.
Coutts, named in relation to its operations in the Isle of Man, said it was 'fully committed to an open and transparent regulatory environment in all jurisdictions'.
There is no suggestion any of the companies if individuals banned have broken the law.
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A native englishman, Aylesbury. Rip off britain, United Kingdom, 7 months ago
As one of the litte people , I wonder if I could get my very small private pension which I pay taxs on, shipped over to a taxs haven,?