Ivy-owner Richard Caring says he's always paid every penny of tax after HSBC accounts leak

West End restaurants and clubs tycoon Richard Caring has insisted he had always paid “every penny” of the money he owed the taxman after his name emerged in reports of leaked files about HSBC Swiss bank accounts.

Mr Caring, owner of The Ivy and Annabel’s, said: “I have spent 60 years building my reputation. And now they are making this inference that I have evaded or avoided tax.

“But the truth is I have stuck absolutely to the law of the country and paid my tax. Every penny.”

He was speaking after details emerged of his withdrawal of five million Swiss francs (£2.25 million) from his HSBC Geneva bank account in September 2005.

It was money that was said to have derived from accounts in Monaco held in the name of his close friend Sir Philip Green’s wife Tina Green.

The reports were drawn from HSBC bankers’ leaked notes about clients. But Mr Caring said he had previously received a loan from Lady Green to buy a business in the UK but this had been repaid: “The money from Switzerland was money from my own account. It had nothing to do with Tina Green.”

There is no suggestion of wrongdoing on the part of Sir Philip or his wife.

The reports said that HSBC bankers had “noted” his offshore accounts were husbanding profits from an “anonymous” stake in Sir Philip’s BHS.

Mr Caring said: “I did own 22.5 per cent of BHS and £100 million was paid [from that] in several dividends, but that was declared to the tax authorities and tax was paid of £33 million.”

The tax records of HSBC’s Swiss private clients came under scrutiny after employee Herve Falciani stole details of customers’ activities.

But Mr Caring said: “I paid that £33 million tax on the BHS dividends many years before this rogue trader stole those files.”

He said he sold the BHS stake to Sir Philip several years ago, and added that the tax department had “investigated in detail the HSBC notes and concluded there was not a penny of tax due”.

Mr Caring said he was non-domiciled for tax reasons because he had spent many years living in Hong Kong and his father was American.

He added: “Yes, I am non-dom: if that is incorrect they should change the law.”