While frowning sternly on any form of illegal activity, TS has to admire the sheer gall of some people when it comes to taking advantage of the taxman.

We've heard endless tales of deviants who try to avoid giving their money to the Inland Revenue, but a delicious new twist was revealed in court yesterday, with one solicitor having exploited the Revenue's good name for his own gain.

Ian Macfarlane pleaded guilty to 26 charges of theft at Bournemouth Crown Court after prising £825,000 from his employers by writing cheques to a bogus bank account he created in the name of 'Ian Revue'.

Apparently, the name on the cheques for clients' stamp duty payments looked so similar to that of the  Rev's when written hurriedly that no-one at the company noticed. He was caught out when he wrote a cheque for a house that was exempt from stamp duty, otherwise it might still have been going on today.

You have to wonder what drove him to such lengths. Macfarlane already earned £138,000 a year and ran a property management company.