Boris Becker in tax investigation

Boris Becker, the three times Wimbledon champion, could face tax evasion charges, it emerged yesterday.

German prosecutors confirmed they found "sufficient reason to suspect tax offences", after a lengthy investigation uncovered alleged discrepancies in the tennis icon's personal accounts.

Becker, 34, who retired from professional tennis three years ago, has been under scrutiny for allegedly claiming his home was in Monaco, a tax haven, while, in fact, he was living in Germany.

Manfred Wick, the head of the Munich public prosecutor's office, said there existed "sufficient reason to suspect tax offences", but that the district court of Munich had not yet decided whether the charges brought would be admissible in court.

Last year, Becker's lawyers revealed that the Munich tax inspectorate had asked him to pay €12m (£7.8m). In November, Robert Luebenoff, his communications director, said he believed a compromise could be reached to prevent the case going to court.

If convicted of tax evasion, Becker could be imprisoned. The charges are the latest in a series of embarrassments for Becker, former darling of Wimbledon after becoming the youngest winner of the men's singles final, aged 17.

After embarking on a career in sports marketing and advertising, he gained unwanted publicity as he divorced his wife of seven years, Barbara Feltus and agreed to a multi-million pound divorce settlement. Then he wasforced to admit paternity of the baby daughter of a Russian model, Angela Ermakova.

The tax case echoes the woes of Germany's other tennis icon, Steffi Graf, whose father, Peter, spent nearly two years in jail after being convicted in 1997 of evading £5m in tax on Ms Graf's earnings.