Our financial editor Sir Howard Elston (OBE) lifts the lid in the Carr for Cash Fiasco and catches up with the jokester to find out what he has to say.

Outspoken comic Jimmy Carr has apologised for getting caught dumping money in an offshore tax avoidance scheme.

The tv funnyman, whose skits often pilloried greedy corporations for chucking cash in dubious tax free deals, himself was outed for protecting £3m per year by channeling his joke- laden dosh in a Jersey based company.

Now he has told me in an exclusive interview: ‘I am sorry. Truly sorry. I was caught and that is the worst thing that can happen to anyone.’

‘I will try harder to be more furtive when it comes to avoiding legal tax structures that can build better schools, better hospitals and better roads.’

‘I am no longer involved in the scheme’ he said over a Pink Lady cocktail in a private Soho drinking den. ‘And in future I will conduct my financial affairs more responsibly  so  no one will know how I scammed the country.’

Mr Carr, darling of the liberal-ish left-ish  post Blair-is-a-creep era, now will work for free forever and man a soup kitchen in Hampstead Heath once a decade to show his concern for those less fortunate than he. He will also donate at least £2.36 per decade to good causes and put as much as he can in ethical ISAs and ethical offshore accounts.

Earlier Mr Carr has been criticised for his tax avoidance by Bullingdon Club vice chair David Cameron who would never think of doing such a greedy thing. . The PM, who is leader of England, said only city investment companies approved by his administration and bankers have a right to shirk tax.

‘Let me make this perfectly clear,’ he said pursing his thin lips and slightly going red at the base of his girlie smooth cheeks. ‘Anyone caught is guilty. That is a crime, a moral crime and a stupid crime.’

‘The lesson to this country, especially in working class areas, is pay your tax bill. We are all in it almost  together.’

‘Now, please, I must go swimming  off Acapulco.’