A former football club chairman is being prosecuted over claims he ran up a massive unpaid tax bill.

Azwar Majeed is due to appear in court later this week accused of cheating the taxman after a Scotland Yard investigation.

Majeed, the former chairman of Crawley Town FC and the owner of several businesses, bars and restaurants in Brighton, Worthing and Crawley, is accused of failing to declare income tax, national insurance and capital gains tax in some of his companies.

While police and HM Revenue and Customs have not revealed the amount the 31-year-old is accused of owing, Mr Majeed himself told The Argus detectives have accused him of dodging £50 million due in tax.

He is accused of "dishonestly failing to account properly or at all" for the tax due "in respect of income derived from trade and capital gains" between April 2003 and March 2007.

The charge is that he did not give notice to tax officials that he was liable for income tax or capital gains tax for that period and failed to submit any tax returns.

Mr Majeed, of Dyke Road Avenue, Hove, is currently on bail and is due to appear at City of Westminster Magistrates' Court in London on Friday.

He said Metropolitan Police officers started an investigation into his finances after discovering half a million pounds in one of his safe deposit boxes at the end of 2006.

Mr Majeed, who turns 32 tomorrow, said: "I am not really very bothered about it. They just found me with lots of tax and presumed I had done something wrong."

Majeed and his brother Chas Majeed came under the media spotlight after they put Crawley Town Football Club into voluntary administration last year because they owed money to a number of creditors including Crawley Borough Council, the Inland Revenue and former players.

A year ago they were taken to the Royal Courts of Justice in London over an unpaid corporation tax bill of £206,000.

The Inland Revenue had applied for a winding up order which would have placed the Majeeds' companies, including the football club and bars in Brighton, Crawley and Burgess Hill, in the hands of receivers.

The case was adjourned for 28 days because of a dispute over the money owed after which the case was dismissed and the Majeeds were ordered to pay court costs.

The Majeeds also own businesses in Crawley, Worthing and Brighton, including Platinum Ignition which hires out top end cars and private yachts and bars such as the recently relaunched The Gentleman's Turf, formerly Ja Vu, in North Street, Brighton.