Jeremy Clarkson says Jesus was "biggest fraudster of them all" while admitting he is "ripe for being ripped off "

Controversial TV personality Jeremy Clarkson is causing controversy again claiming Jesus was the "biggest fraudster of them all". The former Top Gear host made the remarks in his latest column for The Sunday Times - and said people looking to become millionaires in the spirit of Derek 'Del Boy' Trotter could "take a lesson" from the deity.

The 65-year-old, now fronting Clarkson's Farm on Amazon Prime, wrote: "That’s my message if you are considering becoming a celebrated conman. Take a lesson from the biggest fraudster of them all – Jesus. I can walk on water. My mum was a virgin and my dad’s God. And I’m going to start an industry selling this guff that will last for 2,000 years. Top man."

Among his plans for conman greatness, Clarkson, who recently had a health scare after suffering heart problems, said he could try selling pieces of art, despite being "truly useless".

"Every time I try to draw something it ends up looking like a dog," he went on. "Perspective is beyond me. So are shadows. And I have a dithery hand so you get the impression when you look at the Dalmatian, which was supposed to be a rose, that I have delirium tremens.

"Such is the power these days of social media, however, that it must be possible to convince the world that I’ve invented a whole new genre. And that critics are in awe of how I can make even a steam train look like a Jack Russell. A month of relentlessness on TikTok and soon the linen people who like to hang around in galleries in loafers with no socks would be stroking their stubble and making stupid art noises to one another about how they sold one of my 'pieces' to a new hotel in Singapore for a million."

Known to millions as the presenter of quiz show, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, Clarkson also spoke of how he admired some scams - and was shocked at how they were not more common. He even revealed plans for a TV show about cons - alongside Anne Robinson - which was scuppered when she landed a job hosting The Weakest Link.

Among scams he admired, was a ploy reportedly carried out at some unscrupulous Paris cafés, where tourists seeking a posh French wine are actually served cheap plonk. The TV host said he was "amazed this doesn’t happen more often", adding how hostile hospitality workers could be "hollowing out fish fingers and selling the result as line-caught halibut, peeling the batter from a KFC chicken leg and describing the resultant meat as woodland-grown".

He also mentioned antiques dealers, adding how he could be among those conned, should they try, writing: "I’m ripe for being ripped off because when it says on the label that it’s a 19th-Century wingback Herter Brothers chair I believe it’s true. But how do I know it wasn’t made yesterday in Slough and then distressed with salt water to make it look old? Certainly, if I were in the antiques business, that’s what I’d do."