Wayne Rooney
Many fans love to hate Rooney, and aren't those types of emotions what the game's about? REUTERS

Wayne Rooney and Cat Stevens' accountant is facing a prison sentence following a £5million spending spree with money he got from a tax racket.

David Perrin, 46, exploited the government scheme Gift Aid for £70million by helping his clients pay less tax and taking the profits for himself.

Prosecuting, Peter Singer QC said: "In principle everybody stood to benefit, except of course Inland Revenue."

Perrin was a deputing managing director at Vantis Tax and was given the guilty verdict at Blackfriars Crown Court after authorities discovered he ran a tax scheme which exploited UK law on giving shares to charity.

The court found him guilty of "dishonestly submitting, facilitating and inducing others to submit claims for tax relief".

HM Revenue & Customs said Perrin used fellow finance professionals to advise his clients to buy shares in companies he had set up. The companies were then listed on the Channel Islands Stock Exchange and up to 600 people would buy and sell the shares for the sole reason to inflate their cost.

The share owners then donated all of their shares (up to 329 million) to registered charities and then claimed £70 million in tax.

The jury are still are still considering whether his business partner, 53 from Pinner was also involved.

Perrin's famous clients included Wayne Rooney, Cat Stevens' Guy Ritchie, Martin Corry and Jeremy Paxman. There is no suggestion clients had any knowledge of the fraud.