A MANCHESTER millionaire who was once British amateur golf champion has been jailed for four years for masterminding a £3.5m tax scam.

Duncan Evans, originally from Wales, was BBC Wales Sports Personality of the Year in 1980. But the 50-year-old became involved in VAT fraud, living a lavish lifestyle at taxpayers' expense.

Manchester Crown Court heard how he fed the cash into offshore bank accounts in Hong Kong and used it to buy multi-million pound properties in the north west.

Evans splashed out £1.2m in 2002 on Deansgreen Hall in Lymm, Cheshire, before selling it for £3.5m just a year later.

The sprawling house boasts eight bedrooms, eight bathrooms, staff accommodation, stables and a car park for 12 vehicles.

He used the profits from that to buy Ravenstone House in Hale for £2m. Ravenstone has six bedrooms, a home cinema and 35 acres of grounds.

Evans, who also spent £195,000 on a Rolls Royce, was jailed for a tax scam known as `missing trader' fraud.

He took advantage of the fact VAT is not charged on the sale of goods between VAT- registered companies based in different European countries.

Evans would buy goods from other countries then claim against huge sums of VAT that were never liable or paid.

Co-conspirator Leslie Cairns, 51, of Bramhall Lane, Stockport, was also jailed for four years for his role in the swindle.

A spokesman for HM Revenue and Customs, said: "Organised crime groups will stop at nothing in their bid to build vast portfolios of cash, properties, performance cars and other luxury items at the expense of the British taxpayer.

A confiscation hearing was set for May 14 next year and assets of more than £5m have already been seized. Evans was previously jailed for three years in 2003 for his involvement in a similar fraud, along with notorious gang member Ray Woolley, known as `Riviera Ray'.

In his stellar career as an amateur golfer, Evans played in the Walker Cup - the amateur equivalent of the Ryder Cup - and won the British Amateur Championship in 1981.