An “audacious” tax fraudster today faces a bill of almost £100 million for the long-running scam he used to fund a life of luxury.

Ian Leaf, who is serving a twelve-and-a-half year jail sentence, had boasted that he owned a £5 million Swiss chateau, a private jet, a Porsche and an Aston Martin.

The 51-year-old was convicted at London’s Southwark Crown Court of 13 “breathtaking and audacious” offences of fraudulent trading between 1991 and 1996.

Leaf's fraud, which prosecutors called “without precedent” in the UK, involved real and bogus companies, thousands of fictitious documents and a bank registered to a small South Pacific island.

Tax authorities want him to pay back the £55 million he actually stole and the £43 million it would have earned in interest.

Leaf, from Buckinghamshire, was arrested in 2000 after hiring a private jet to fly from his home in Switzerland to Rome with his wife and mother-in-law. Despite extradition proceedings, he was released on bail and promptly fled by train to the Swiss border.

There he arranged a lift with an off-duty tax inspector before being arrested again - this time by Swiss authorities. He was remained in custody and was returned to Britain in July 2004.

The court heard Leaf bought 13 so-called “subsidiary'' companies from parent concerns with tax liabilities and set up a bank on the then Pacific tax haven of Nauru.

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