MIRED in an unpleasant and seedy world of harassment accusations and casting couch impropriety, some of the rich and famous elite needed something to take them off the front pages.

Lo and behold it happened this week, but only by turning a spotlight on some of the rich and famous elite’s financial sleight-of-hand and unscrupulous practices. The leaking this week of a veritable mother-load of financial documents relating to everyone from senior royals to the stars of Mrs Brown’s Boys (as if they hadn’t already done enough bad things) provided some entertainment, for me at least.

People with oodles of money being made to feel bad about their dodgy tax-avoidance shenanigans? Grand. Unfortunately, they’ve still got lots of dosh in the bank (wherever it may be), so I doubt they’re too traumatised. We have a notoriously short attention span nowadays, so we will probably have forgotten all about... the thing... sorry, what were we talking about again?

Obtained by a German newspaper, the staggering 13.4 million documents are being pored over with glee by the grandly titled International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. Or “Very Happy Hacks” for short. The world of offshore finance and tax havens is a baffling one to many (me included), but the papers from law firm Appleby that make up the leaked stash shine a light on how high-net-worth individuals, and their legal teams, can set up and register companies in offshore locations to avoid paying tax, among other dubious and shady practices.

The list of big names squinting awkwardly in the glare includes everyone from U2’s Bono, top officials working for Donald Trump, and Lord Ashcroft, to gigantic corporations such as Apple, and even whole land masses – The Isle of Man apparently passed a law that helps people evade tax. You wouldn’t catch the Isle of Wight doing that.

It’s not often I get to have a dig at my Formula 1 nemesis, Lewis Hamilton, twice in a fortnight, but even he’s on the naughty list. The papers show a £3.3m tax refund for his £16.5m luxury jet. I can’t even begin to understand the complicated back-story to this one, but there’s stuff in there about private vs business use, purchasing it outside the EU, leasing the jet to a new company on the Isle of Man (that bad rock again!) who lease it to a third party who lease in back to Lewis.

Of course, Hamilton is too busy being famous to respond to accusations of dodgy financial practices, but some of his advisers (the one’s who aren’t panicking, presumably) insist everything is above board, and it’s all now with his lawyers. Lewis might be squirming a bit, but he’ll be doing it in a £16.5m luxury jet, so let’s not feel too sorry for the 2017 F1 World Champ, eh?

If anyone wants to investigate my financial affairs, I’ve got £29.37 in cash, a sizeable credit card bill and a whopping £1.43 in an ISA I haven’t accessed this decade. Bring. It. On.