On 23 October 1987 former champion jockey Lester Piggott was sentenced to three years' imprsionment after being found guilty of an alleged tax fraud that cost the public purse £3m.

He was jailed after failing to declare income to the then Inland Revenue of £3.25m, including an alleged omission of £1.4m from additional riding income and a further £1m from bloodstock operations earned over a 14-year period. He was alleged to have used different names and a network of secret bank accounts from Switzerland to the Bahamas, Singapore and the Cayman Islands to shield parts of his £20m personal fortune.

Sentencing him at Ipswich Crown Court, Mr Justice Farquharson said Pigott had even misled his own accountant.

The case may feel of a different time but comments by Newmarket trainer David Thom on Piggott's jailing sound familiar today. Describing the sentence as a 'terrible injustice', he told the BBC that Piggott had put 'more money in the taxman's coffers than any 100 people could have done'. Avoiding tax because of the volume tax paid elsewhere remains a common argument and one with which Hartnett is likely to find little sympathy.