IT’S been eight long years since Rangers FC went into administration and then liquidation, but the saga of that troubled period rumbles on and shows no sign of immediate resolution.
An important point first – the current owners of Rangers have no connection to the cases brought by David Whitehouse and Paul Clark, the administrators from Duff and Phelps, or former directors Charles Green and Imran Ahmad, and the Ibrox club will have no liability in this case.
The cases date back to the takeover of Rangers in 2011, the debt-ridden club sold by Sir David Murray to Craig Whyte for £1. Whyte put the club into administration after failing to pay a tax bill, and international company recovery specialists Duff and Phelps were appointed as administrators, with David Whitehouse and Paul Clark the public faces of that administration.
Charles Green and Imran Ahmad took over Rangers as Sevco Scotland, the former as chief executive and the latter as commercial director. In 2015 they were prosecuted for alleged fraud and conspiracy but the charges were dropped by the Crown Office and Prosecution Service. Whitehouse and Clark were also prosecuted, as was Craig Whyte. Only Whyte went to trial and was acquitted.
Now the Crown Office has admitted that the prosecution of Whitehouse and Clark was malicious. They want £20.5 million in total damages plus expenses. They will have to prove to the courts that the damage to their reputation by the malicious prosecution amounted to that total and unless there is mediation – all sides seemed agreeable to that in court yesterday – the issue will go to a proof, a full hearing with witnesses, in January. Whitehouse and Clark’s expenses so far are already over £2.8m, and that does not include the costs of the investigation and the Crown’s own costs.
With the former directors Green and Ahmad also taking compensation cases for more than £25m, the bungled prosecution could end up costing the taxpayer £50m in damages plus expenses. Whitehouse and Clark were awarded £600,000 in interim expenses yesterday.
It had already been revealed by the BBC that Ahmad would receive an apology and damages from the Lord Advocate. The case for compensation of the consultant David Grier, a former Duff and Phelps executive, was reported to have been lost but The National understands the case is still live and he, too, is seeking millions.
The implications for the Scottish justice system are staggering. Apart from the costs, the original decision to prosecute was taken by the then-Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland, who is now the judge Lord Mulholland, while the court heard that the current Lord Advocate continued to fight the case despite evidence that the prosecution was wrongful. As Scotland’s senior law officer and an ex-officio member of the Scottish Government, the Lord Advocate’s position will undoubtedly come under scrutiny in this case.
Police Scotland are defending the case and are currently carrying out no internal inquiry while the main officer who conducted the investigation, Detective Chief Inspector Jim Robertson, is not suspended.
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