Tax officials traced the owners of 133 Lamborghinis, Ferraris, SUVs and other top-end cars that they found parked in the snow-lined streets of Cortina d’Ampezzo, a winter playground for the rich and famous in the Dolomites.

They found that 42 of the owners – nearly a third – had declared incomes of less than 22,000 euros (£18,000) a year. A further 16 claimed to be earning less than 50,000 euros a year.

The investigation, in Italy’s answer to St Moritz, highlights a nationwide problem of Italians cheating the tax man by hugely under-declaring their incomes or declaring no income at all.

The spot checks were carried out by a team of 80 officers from Italy’s inland revenue agency, who said it would be almost impossible to run a top-of-the-range BMW or Porsche on such modest salaries, at a time when a full tank of petrol for a high-performance car can cost 180 euros.

Another 118 sports cars were found to be owned by companies, rather than individuals, for the purposes of tax write-offs. . .