Hogan barred from leaving Australia

Paul Hogan, the actor best known for playing an outback hunter in the Crocodile Dundee movies, has been barred from leaving the country until he pays a multimillion-dollar tax bill.

The Australian Taxation Office served US-based Hogan with a departure prohibition order when he returned to Sydney last Friday for the funeral of his 101-year-old mother Florence, his lawyer Andrew Robinson said.

The order prevents the actor, 70, from leaving Australia until any alleged tax debts are paid or arrangements made for the tax liability to be discharged.

Hogan is under investigation over claims that he put tens of millions of dollars in film royalties in offshore tax havens, a claim which he has denied.

The tax office was reported to have served Hogan with an amended tax bill last month for tax on $37.6m (£24m) of undeclared income after a five-year fight.