Britain pays jailed whistleblower £100,000 for secrets of tax dodgers

The whistleblower is thought to have been given a new identity amid fears of reprisals from those he has already exposed as hiding money in the tax haven of Liechtenstein.

Heinrich Kieber, 42, a former employee of LGT Bank in the principality stole a DVD listing names and details of its foreign customers.

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Although he was later jailed for a year for the crime and returned the disk, he had made a copy.

He initially approached Britain with the information more than two years ago but was turned away. He then went to the BND, the German equivalent of MI5, which paid him £3million for the list of at least 750 Germans with billions of pounds stashed in the bank.

The disk triggered a huge crackdown on tax evaders in Germany that has caused a furore and seen businessmen quit their jobs in shame.

It is believed the German results persuaded Britain to think again and a decision to buy the UK list was taken in the "last few weeks".

While Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs would not comment on how much was handed to Kieber, reports said it was about £100,000.

With many secretive banking locations now easily accessible under EU rules, many British businessmen have turned to Liechtenstein to hide money they do not want to declare.

The UK authorities describe the purchase of the list as "a coup" and are writing to those on it. An HMRC spokesman said the service hoped to recover at least £100million in unpaid taxes.

Any Briton found to have evaded tax by putting money in a Liechtenstein account faces fines of up to 100 per cent of the tax owed and in some cases up to seven years in prison.

Kieber, who is from Liechtenstein, is said to have been given a new identity and is under the protection of the BND.

"The people he fingered want to see him sleeping with the fishes," said a source close to the intelligence service.

Some reports claim he has been spirited out of Europe to begin a new life in Australia.