Forget TVs out of windows, tales of orgies and drug taking, these days nothing says rock 'n' roll like a spot of tax dodging.
As the Arctic Monkeys are named as the latest musicians to have allegedly taken advantage of the tax avoidance scheme Liberty – which has seen celebrities including Gary Barlow and George Michael send mega sums to Jersey in order to shield cash from the Inland Revenue - Katie Melua has spoken for the first time about her involvement in the billion-pound strategy.
Taking to her website to set the record straight, Melua wrote in a statement that she was 'clueless' about the alleged £850,000 that she invested in the scheme back in 2008.
Melua, who was 25-years-old at the time she invested in the plan, admits that she was 'inexperienced when it came to finance goes… and, I'm embarrassed to admit, not as interested in it as I should have been.' And while we don't have that kind of cash to manage, we do understand the feeling of not knowing the first thing about taxes.
Explaining why she got involved in the Liberty plan, Melua said: 'From what I can remember in 2008 when the Liberty scheme was presented to me it was not presented as 'an aggressive tax avoidance scheme'. It was presented as an 'investment scheme' that had the potential to legally reduce yearly income tax.'
Following the allegations, Melua was also described as a 'fallen hero' by Christian Aid, who had previously nominated her for a Tax Superhero award.
But while the singer has had to deal with heavy criticism and scrutiny over the controversial case, she has nothing but praise for the media and the journalists that brought it to light.
'Yeah, it sucks getting this type of attention, but I commend the investigative journalism that is allowed in Britain. If there is ambiguity in the law then laws should be changed to disallow schemes like this, so that they would never be presented by legitimate tax experts to less experienced people like myself in the first place. Hopefully the debate will lead to positive change for all.'
Picture: Rex Features
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.