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Chris Moyles has admitted joining a tax avoidance scheme that would have cost the UK £290million.

The former Radio 1 DJ pretended to be a used car salesman hit by losses to save up to £1million in tax payments.

He joined a scheme called Working Wheels which boasted 450 high earning members, including celebrities.

The star, who earned £500,000-a-year at the BBC, said he accepted "full responsibility" for his actions after a tribunal ruled he took part "for no purpose other than to achieve a tax saving".

Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs claimed the closure of the scheme had saved the country £290million.

The NT Advisors scheme counted "450 fund managers, celebs and other high earners between 2006 and 2008" as members and involved a series of complex trades across tax havens.

Moyles told HMRC he had spent the 2007/8 tax year “engaged in self-employment as a used car trader”.

According to tribunal chief Judge Colin Bishopp the broadcaster claimed he had sold £3,800 of vehicles but had run up losses of £1million which he wanted to claim against his tax bill.

An HMRC insider said the scheme involved a series of "phantom" deals in cars that did not exist.

Lib-Dem Treasury Chief Secretary Danny Alexander said: "Well done to HMRC for shutting this unfair scheme.

"Message to other tax dodgers: you’ll be caught."

And Margaret Hodge, ­Labour chairwoman of the Commons Public Accounts Committee, added: "It is ­unacceptable when the majority of hard-working people pay their taxes that rich people go to such lengths to avoid paying theirs.

"These schemes should be outlawed."

And Tory Exchequer Secretary David Gauke said: "This is another example of why taxpayers should not fall for the ­promises of promoters selling schemes too good to be true.

"Not only will they waste money on the fees, they will still have to pay all the tax, interest and penalties."

Moyles, 40 today, claimed he had been "naive".

He said: "Upon advice, I signed up to a scheme which I was assured was legal.

"I'm not a tax expert and acted on advice I was given.

"This was a mistake and I accept the ruling without reservation.

"I have learnt a ­valuable lesson."

Moyles' involvement came to light after officials examined tax returns.

The ruling from the Tax Chamber of the First-tier Tribunal revealed he did not attend the hearing but gave "a brief and ­uninformative statement".

It said his accountant, Derek Smith, had "agreed the scale of Moyles' borrowing was driven by the amount of the tax loss he wanted to achieve, in his case £1million".

The DJ, who has been playing King Herod in Jesus Christ Superstar after quitting Radio 1, was one of three of the 450 appealing against the ruling that the scheme was unacceptable.

HMRC said: "Anyone using an ­avoidance scheme is playing with fire.

"We have a high success rate in defeating them."

Tax avoidance, described as bending the rules, and tax evasion, which is illegal, costs the UK £35billion a year.

As well as Working Wheels, the HMRC successfully shut down three other NT Advisor schemes.

Comedian Jimmy Carr admitted in 2012 he had "made a terrible error of judgment" when he joined a tax ­avoidance outfit that David Cameron called "morally wrong".