IT has been claimed popular British coffee house Caffe Nero hasn't paid a penny in UK corporation tax since 2007 despite racking up around £100million in profits.

According to the Daily Mail, the chain has become the latest big firm to come under fire over its tax affairs, in the wake of US behemoths Starbucks, Amazon, and Google.

The newspapers says analysis of the company's accounts show it has not paid any tax since its financial year ending May 31, 2007 and in the period since then it has notched up just under £1billion in sales and made profits before tax of around £100million.

It added the latest filings to Companies House show the privately-owned company made a £21.1million profit in the year ended May 31 2013 and generated £204.3million in sales.

However, the newspaper also said there was no suggestion Cafe Nero had been doing anything illegal.

Caffe Nero has two branches in Worcester - in the Shambles and Broad Street - and a further two in Malvern, with the outlets in Church Street and the retail park off Townsend Way.

The coffee giant caused a stir in the Faithful City when it bought a vacant shop in the Shambles in 2005 and proceeded to open the store despite planning officers telling them the unit had to be a shop.

They were officially given permission to trade in June 2007 after the city council decided it did not want to fight it through the courts because of the high costs.

It had lodged a retrospective planning application, despite occupying the unit for two years without approval anyway.

The site Caffe Nero currently occupies was originally earmarked as a cold food store rather than a coffee shop.