[8][9] He recounted that in 1989 he was arrested for burglary in Cyprus and was sentenced to three years imprisonment in the Central Jail of Nicosia, where his Buddhist upbringing did not give him much strength to endure the harsh conditions.

[13] By his own version of events, his car had hit a female motorcyclist at night, killing her, but he had not stayed at the scene and later denied it to the police.

Critics were quick to point out that it reads like a work of fiction...[1][2]Users of a martial arts website also began to doubt Anthony's story, starting in 2007.

Hancock then joined with another former director of Avanti Ministries, Geoff Elliott, who had similar concerns, Anglican church leader Carl Chambers, and prison chaplain David Buick, and together they sought to uncover the truth about Anthony.

The panel produced its report on 26 June 2013 and concluded, based on the evidence submitted to it, that large sections of the book Taming the Tiger, and associated materials, which claim to tell the true story of Tony Anthony’s life, do not do so.

[7][26]Avanti Ministries have refused to release the panel's report, citing confidentiality, but Gavin Drake has indicated that the Research Group challenged virtually all of Anthony's claims regarding his life prior to becoming a Christian.

[1][2] A comment by Steve Clifford, General Director of the Evangelical Alliance, confirmed that the information available online comprises most of the issues raised in the original complaint.

[27] Specific aspects of Anthony's story that have been disputed include his birth in the early 1960s to an Italian father, his childhood in China, his training in Kung Fu and winning three world championships, and his role as a bodyguard and enforcer for international gangsters and diplomats.

Drake indicated that Anthony confirmed that his real name is Andonis Andreou Athanasiou and he was born on 30 July 1971, which would make him too young to have participated in the events described in his book.

[29] In a statement published on his personal website, Anthony accepted that there were some errors in Taming the Tiger relating to his childhood, and claimed he was unaware of these details when the book was written.

[31] On 30 August 2013, John Langlois OBE, the chair of the inquiry panel, released a strongly-worded letter expressing his concerns at the lack of transparency shown by Avanti Ministries.

The article referred to a subsequent investigation by Ian Bruce which concluded that the allegations made against Anthony were unjust,[5] and called on the Evangelical Alliance and Christianity magazine to apologise for them.

It covered the earlier controversy, the republication of Taming The Tiger, and also pointed out discrepancies in a report on Anthony's website about a 2014 meeting at Royal Holloway University.