HSBC: 'Tax scroungers' let off lightly, says MP Hodge

Britain's biggest bank helped wealthy clients cheat the UK out of millions of pounds in tax, the BBC has learned.

Panorama has seen thousands of accounts from HSBC's private bank in Switzerland leaked by a whistleblower in 2007.

HSBC admitted that some individuals took advantage of bank secrecy to hold undeclared accounts. But it said it has now "fundamentally changed".

Chair of the Public Accounts Committee Margaret Hodge told the BBC that "benefits scroungers" are being made an example of, while "tax scroungers" are let off lightly.