Ex-Rangers administrators David Whitehouse and Paul Clark in £21m settlement

[Scott7 6,018]

1 hour ago, RANGERRAB said:

at what rate did they think they’re taxed at? >100%?

Interest and penalties would account for a bit of it.

[Scott7 6,018]

1 hour ago, der Berliner said:

... hence my question whether this was not established in court before? Didn`t the last court case rule that tax was due to be paid on the EBTs et al and hence I assumed that the claim was correct. Then again, BDO disputes the sum, which might be a different thing.

The Supreme Court decided on liability to pay. Still leaves the assessment of the sum actually due open to argument. 

[Uilleam 5,948]

2 minutes ago, Scott7 said:

Interest and penalties would account for a bit of it.

I was just going to make that very point.

 

The headline -and headline making- figure of c £94M/whatever would be substantially reduced by their removal. The balance thereafter, it seems to me, is what Messrs BDO are beavering away to reduce. 

 

[RANGERRAB 3,680]

57 minutes ago, Scott7 said:

Interest and penalties would account for a bit of it.

If applicable. I suspect BDO think otherwise

[Uilleam 5,948]

Lord Tyre has removed David Grier's snout from the public swill bucket. 

Seems a shame that the Crown did not admit liability for a 'malicious prosecution' in his case. 

What's £9M? Chump change from the back of Sturgeon's sofa.

 

David Grier loses fight for damages over Rangers case

Published

2 hours ago

David Grier was charged in 2014 but eventually cleared along with a number of other men

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-59953108

 

A business consultant who was arrested during the probe into Craig Whyte's takeover of Rangers has lost a £9m damages action against the Crown Office and Police Scotland.

David Grier was arrested in November 2014 but was later acquitted of all charges by a High Court judge

Mr Grier said the arrest had been a "career ending moment".

A judge at the Court of Session ruled Mr Grier had failed to prove he was the victim of a malicious prosecution.

 

In total, seven people were arrested during the fraud investigation in 2014 but Craig Whyte was the only one whose case ever went before a jury.

Mr Whyte was accused of using Rangers' own money to buy the club while claiming the funds were his. He was found not guilty in 2017.

The Crown Office has already admitted that two employees of financial consultants Duff and Phelps - David Whitehouse and Paul Clark - were subjected to "malicious" prosecutions over their role in events at Rangers.

Mr Whitehouse and Mr Clark were appointed administrators of the club in 2012.

They have received damages from the Crown Office of £10.5m each and £3m in legal expenses.

The current Lord Advocate James Wolffe QC apologised to both men in a statement in the Scottish Parliament.

 

The Crown also admitted that there was a malicious prosecution against Charles Green, who led a consortium which took over Rangers in 2012.

In August, Mr Green settled for £6.3m in compensation for being wrongfully prosecuted by the Crown Office. He also had his legal fees paid.

 

In a judgment from the Court of Session on Tuesday, judge Lord Tyre said he recognised that comparisons could be drawn between his decision on Mr Grier, who also worked for Duff and Phelps, and the outcome of actions by Mr Whitehouse and Mr Clark.

He said: "I do not regard it as appropriate to attempt to identify reasons why admissions of liability were made in those cases but no finding of liability is made in this case.

"The admissions of liability were decisions taken by the Crown in the light of the factual circumstances as they were perceived."

The judge said his task was to assess the evidence presented to the court in the claim before him.

[Uilleam 5,948]

Ex-Rangers consultant David Grier loses damages claim against ‘incompetent’ Police Scotland officers

James Mulholland

Wednesday January 12 2022, 12.00am, The Times

 

A businessman who was arrested during the Rangers fraud case has lost his £8.7 million action against police and the Crown Office for malicious prosecution.

David Grier, 60, claimed his detention had ruined his reputation but the Court of Session ruled that while the police investigation had been riven with “incompetence” and “lack of professionalism” there was “reasonable and probable cause to indict” at the time of Grier’s arrest in 2014.

 

In a written judgment Lord Tyre was heavily critical of senior officers. He said the evidence of Detective Chief Inspector Jim Robertson, who led the inquiry, was sometimes evasive and unreliable while his actions during the investigation were at times reprehensible and involved “unacceptable intimidatory and threatening behaviour”.

Robertson mishandled documents which were protected by legal privilege, the court was told, and a witness in the case described how the detective appeared to chant football song lyrics during an interview, describing the behaviour as bizarre. Tyre also dismissed some of the evidence given by Detective Chief Inspector Jacqueline O’Neill, 47, as “untruthful”.

 

The judgment is the latest twist in the long-running saga of the police investigation into the businessman Craig White’s takeover of Rangers FC in 2011 and its aftermath. The club’s assets were sold in 2012 to a consortium led by Charles Green, who went on to become Rangers’ chief executive.

 

A series of arrests followed in 2014, but the Crown’s alleged fraud case slowly fell apart.

Last year James Wolffe, then lord advocate, issued apologies to Green, the former Rangers director Imran Ahmad, and to David Whitehouse and Paul Clark, of the administrators Duff & Phelps, who were all wrongfully prosecuted.

Green received a £6.4 million settlement, while Whitehouse and Clark have accepted £10.3 million each from the Crown with reportedly a further £3 million each to cover their legal costs.

 

Grier was also an employee of Duff & Phelps when he was taken into custody.

In court, he said that he had no idea why he was arrested, describing White’s deal as “a perfectly normal commercial transaction”.

When he developed concerns following the conclusion of the sale he made them known to HM Revenue & Customs on several occasions, he said.

His arrest had been disastrous for his business, he told the court. “Unfortunately being arrested for fraud when you work in financial services is catastrophic, it’s a career-ending moment,” Grier said.

 

Tyre ruled that neither the police nor the prosecution service had acted maliciously. In a written judgment, he said: “Robertson’s reprehensible actings, including in particular his wilful disregard for legal professional privilege and his improper behaviour during interviews of witnesses, were largely driven by his groundless suspicion that the Duff & Phelps witnesses and their lawyers were deliberately obstructing the investigation.”

He added: “It was emphasised by the court in Whitehouse v Lord Advocate that malice was not to be inferred from, among other things, incompetence, poor judgment, lack of professionalism or recklessness.

“Much of the police investigation suffered from these faults but that is not enough to meet the test. No ‘illegitimate or oblique motive’ or deliberate misuse of the process of the court has been demonstrated.”

Tyre said he was satisfied that those involved in the prosecution “were subjectively of the view that there was reasonable and probable cause to indict the pursuer for the offences with which he was charged”.

He said their actions “were not motivated by any purpose other than the pursuit of the interests of justice”.

[Uilleam 5,948]

"....a senior police officer.....acted in an “unacceptable, intimidatory and threatening” manner during the ill-fated investigation into the takeover of Rangers FC..."

"There was evidence . . . of unacceptable, intimidatory and threatening behaviour..."

 

I'll wager that worse happened when he took his Third Degree....

 

 

Jim Robertson: Police urged to tackle officer in ‘incompetent’ Rangers inquiry

Marc Horne

Thursday January 13 2022, 12.01am, The Times

 

Detective Chief Inspector Jim Robertson, who led the fraud inquiry, was found by Lord Tyre to be “evasive and unreliable”

 

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/jim-robertson-police-urged-to-tackle-officer-in-incompetent-rangers-inquiry-cl6x5n2mh

 

Pressure is mounting for a senior police officer who acted in an “unacceptable, intimidatory and threatening” manner during the ill-fated investigation into the takeover of Rangers FC to face disciplinary action.

David Grier, 58, a business consultant, launched a £9 million damages claim against Police Scotland and the lord advocate, insisting he was wrongfully arrested.

This week the Court of Session ruled he had not been prosecuted maliciously but found the police investigation had been riven with “incompetence” and “lack of professionalism”.

Lord Tyre found that Detective Chief Inspector Jim Robertson, who led the fraud inquiry, was “evasive and unreliable” and had given evidence that was “patently untrue”.

In behaviour that has drawn comparisons to The Sweeney, the 1970s police drama, the ruling found Robertson bellowed “Shut up or I will put you out” at a solicitor during an interview and tore open an envelope containing documents protected by legal privilege.

 

Russell Findlay, the Scottish Conservative spokesman on community safety, said the force must take action. “The judge’s comments about police conduct in this case are scathing and Police Scotland must now explain exactly what action it will take,” he said.

“Police Scotland cannot kick this into the long grass until an inquiry reports — they have sufficient evidence to act immediately.”

 

Jack Irvine, a crisis management executive who represents Charles Green, the former Rangers chief executive who last year accepted an out-of-court settlement of £6.4 million for being wrongly prosecuted in connection with the takeover, also called for Robertson to face sanctions. “I have rarely seen a serving police officer criticised in such terms by a judge,” he said. “His behaviour was like something out of The Sweeney and was a terrible reflection on Police Scotland.”

 

Tyre noted that Robertson had to be ordered to answer his questions, adding: “At some times he professed lack of memory because of the passage of time, at others he demonstrated a detailed recollection of events when it was in his interest to do so. There was evidence, which I accept . . . of unacceptable, intimidatory and threatening behaviour by Mr Robertson. In other respects I found his evidence unsatisfactory.”

In court Robertson confirmed the investigation into the Rangers administration case was codenamed Project William, which he said was a reference to William of Orange. He denied chanting The Billy Boys, a Rangers song with sectarian lyrics, but said he may have “referenced” it.

 

Tyre also found that some evidence given by Detective Chief Inspector Jacqueline O’Neill, the second most senior officer on the case, was “untruthful”.

 

Craig Whyte, who bought Rangers for £1 from David Murray in May 2011, was cleared after a seven-week trial in 2017. He had been accused of using money coming from future season ticket sales to buy the club while claiming the funds were his.

Seven men were arrested in 2014, but Whyte was the only one whose case went before a jury.

 

More than £30 million has been paid out to settle claims made by businessmen who were wrongfully arrested and faced “malicious prosecution” for their role in the Ibrox club’s financial collapse and subsequent sale.

The final cost to the taxpayer is expected to rise significantly with Duff & Phelps, a global financial consultancy firm, seeking considerable redress for reputational damage sustained when employees were arrested without probable cause.

An independent public inquiry has been commissioned into the scandal.

 

Both Robertson and O’Neill went on to be promoted by Police Scotland.

 

Assistant Chief Constable Alan Speirs said: “Police Scotland will fully assist and engage with the inquiry announced in the Scottish parliament last year.

“Lord Tyre’s judgment highlights serious issues and we are carefully considering his findings.”

 

Comments for this article have been turned off

[compo 7,055]

Of course he was prosecuted maliciously hope there is some way he can appeal 

[the gunslinger 3,366]

4 hours ago, compo said:

Of course he was prosecuted maliciously hope there is some way he can appeal 

Grier is one of the worst names that have been associated with rangers ever. 

 

I hope for many things for him but a successful appeal is not one. 

[RANGERRAB 3,680]

Still maintain the police were justified in going after these individuals. However they made a complete arse of it for whatever reason. It seemed to me they lacked evidence