A number of UK charities - many of them household names - are being exploited by offshore trusts to shelter millions of pounds from the world's tax authorities, an expose has revealed.

According to an investigation by The Sunday Times and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalism, wealthy investors have named charities as the biggest beneficiaries of offshore trusts that have only been set up to benefit themselves,The findings have been unearthed from a tranche of 2.5m leaked documents from one of the world's largest tax havens and show that simply by naming charities as the alleged beneficiaries of a trust, the real owners can sidestep the attention of tax authorities.

Greenpeace, Cancer Research UK, Amnesty International, the NSPCC and the National Trust are just some of the charities whose names have been used by British Virgin Islands-based (BVI) trusts as well as others located in the Cook Islands.

The probe found that Cancer Research UK and the NSPCC were among four charities named as beneficiaries from a BVI trust set up to receive profits amassed from numerous property deals.

The charities told those working on the expose that they were never even aware that such trusts existed, nor had they ever received any money from them.

Margaret Hodge MP, chairman of the Commons public accounts committee, told the newspaper: 'It is beyond belief that people have stooped so low [as] to name charities in schemes which could be used to avoid tax, conceal identities or launder money. We need to lift the lid on the tax havens to stop this abuse. The problem is the complete lack of transparency.'

The most commonly used charity named in the leaked documents was the Red Cross. Others included a US nunnery.

While offshore financial experts say there is no tax advantage in setting up offshore trusts for charities as they are already exempt from tax, many of the trust deeds are worded to ensure the mystery owners maintain full - and secretive- control of the funds.

The expose was made public just hours after Chancellor George Osborne announced a deal to clamp down on British taxpayers' use of tax havens by signing an agreement with the Cayman Islands whereby it will share information about UK taxpayers who have bank accounts on the islands.

A similar Treasury deal is believed to be in the offing with the BVI.