The money's gone, claims £100m tax-fraud playboy

Ian Leaf said that despite having lived the lifestyle of a multi-millionaire - complete with private jets and a Swiss mansion - he had profited little from his crimes.

The claim was described as "startling" by a judge on the first day of a hearing to determine how much the 52-year-old former playboy should repay of the millions he fleeced from the British taxpayer.

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Prosecutors ridiculed Leaf's claim, alleging that he had actually accrued £99,805,494 during a 'breathtaking and audacious' sixyear fraud.

Last year, the former car-salesman - nicknamed "Tea Leaf" by colleagues after the cockney-rhyming slang for thief - was jailed for 12 years.

Yesterday he appeared at Southwark Crown Court in London; this time to determine how much he should repay.

Before his arrest, Leaf lived the lifestyle of a super-rich Swiss banker.

He had a fleet of luxury cars, two private jets and lived in a ten-bedroom mansion on the banks of Lake Geneva. The latest of his three wives was Sweden's entrant in the 1994 Miss Universe competition.

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A one-time chartered accountant from North London, Leaf ran his complex fraud between 1991 and 1996.

He bought 13 different companies and used a fictitious bank, owned by himself, to pretend that his newly acquired firms had taken out huge loans.

The false interest payments he said these loans generated were then offset against tax. He also claimed the loans were used to generate profit, and bogus dividends were then used to regain corporation tax.

Leaf managed to evade capture until 2000, when he flew into Rome with an out-of-date passport. Italian officials discovered he was on an Interpol watch list and put him under house arrest.

But he managed to slip away and escaped on foot across the Alps back to Switzerland, from where he tried - and ultimately failed - to avoid extradition to Britain.

Yesterday defence barrister Graham Brodie claimed Leaf had not carried out the fraud to benefit himself, but had instead been simply working for others - meaning he personally profited far less than previously thought.

His claim that his client is worth just £200,000 prompted Judge David Higgins to comment: "That claim is certainly, on the face of it, a startling one."

Mr Brodie went on to say that the Leaf Family Trust - into which Leaf allegedly funnelled some of the proceeds of his fraud - is actually £71,000 in the red.

But prosecutor Andrew Mitchell QC questioned that figure, saying: "If one was to look at the Leaf Family Trust one would end up in a position where the trustees are in debt to the tune of £71,000.

"It rather indicates that the Leaf Family trustees haven't done very well over the last few years."

He added: "In a rising property market they seem to have found properties that have gone down in value.

"What has happened to the profits of the fraudulent scheme? What has it been spent on? What have these trustees invested in that has resulted in loss?"

The QC told the court that before his conviction Leaf had employed a team of Swiss lawyers to investigate English law on reclaiming the proceeds of crime.

Mr Mitchell said: "That is some indication of a concern of somebody who worries about whether or not he might face liability over fraudulent activities in the future."

He added: "Mr Leaf benefited directly from this (fraud) and set up a process that ensured that the property he obtained was put beyond the reach of the court in the event of him being convicted."

Leaf looked relaxed as he sat in the dock, intently following the technical legal deliberations and occasionally passing notes to his lawyers.

He was warned his sentence could be doubled if he refuses to pay back a sum decided by the judge at the end of the week-long hearing.