Harry Redknapp tax evasion charges are 'illogical' and 'do not make sense', claims defence counsel

The jury at Southwark Crown Court is set to retire on Tuesday as they look to reach a verdict, with the 64-year-old due to fly to Anfield on Monday for Liverpool clash

6 Feb 2012 17:13:00

More On :  Tottenham, Harry Redknapp
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By Wayne Veysey at Southwark Crown Court

Harry Redknapp had no motive to dodge paying taxes and volunteered information about the existence of his Monaco bank account that he could have kept secret forever, Southwark Crown Court heard today.
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In his closing speech for the Tottenham manager's defence against charges of cheating the tax authorities before the judge presents his summary of the case tomorrow morning, Redknapp's counsel, John Kelsey-Fry QC, said the prosecution had no answers as to why such a wealthy individual would try to avoid paying taxes worth a maximum £70,000.

Mr Kelsey-Fry told the court that the prosecution's case is "illogical", "does not make sense" and its claim that Redknapp was greedy "shrieks of something that just can't be right".

He told the 12-person jury that they would not be sitting at the court today had Redknapp not disclosed to Quest 'bungs' investigators the existence of his 'Rosie47' bank account in Monaco.

"When someone asked Mr Redknapp if he had an off-shore account, he didn't say 'no'. He said, 'I've got an account in Monaco'," said Mr Kelsey-Fry. "It is an inescapable fact that had Mr Redknapp not volunteered his secret it would have remained a secret to this day.

"This answer could not have come from the lips of a guilty man. The irony is that a guilty Mr Mandaric and a guilty Mr Redknapp would have kept it a secret.

"Nobody would ever have known unless they had told them. The prosecution have absolutely no answer to this."

As Redknapp's trial for tax evasion entered it's third week, the court heard that Redknapp earned "in the region of £1.5million" as a result of two separate bonus payments and a salary hike for steering Portsmouth to a 13th-place finish in the 2003-04 Premier League season. In May 2004, Redknapp signed a new contract worth £4.2m over three years.

Mr Kelsey-Fry described Redknapp as "an uncommonly kind and generous man", highlighting how he had waived a £140,000 compensation pay-off from Portsmouth and urged the club to plough the money into the youth set-up.

"What these figures indicate is that the prosecution case just doesn't make sense," Mr Kelsey-Fry said.

Redknapp and Milan Mandaric, his co-accused, claim the two payments into the Rosie47 account - $145,000 (around £92,000) in May 2002 and $150,000 in May 2004 - were to develop an investment portfolio and were unrelated to the manager's job at Portsmouth. They both deny two counts of cheating the public revenue.

The prosecution have focused on the repeated admissions of Redknapp to Rob Beasley, the reporter then working for the News of the World, that $145,000 paid into his Monaco bank account was a "bonus" and paid as part of his cut on the profit for selling crouch.

Earlier, Mandaric's lawyer Lord Macdonald QC said the prosecution case was "paper thin and desperate" and told the court that the wealth of the two men "is the inescapable penetrating fact in this case".

He said his client was a successful businessman "worth hundreds of millions of pounds" and read out submissions from Mandaric's business colleagues testifying to his integrity and honesty. "Mr Mandaric is not guilty, not greedy and definitely not a tax cheat," said Lord MacDonald.

He told the court that there was a time when Mr Mandaric did not have money growing up as a boy in Croatia after the second world war but then "things changed dramatically" after he went to the US and invested in Silicon Valley. His fortune came from being "in the right place at the right time" adding that Apple founder Steve Jobs, who had been a business partner of the former Portsmouth chairman, "did not work with fools".

Lord Macdonald likened the relationship of Redknapp and Mandaric to the Hollywood film The Odd Couple starring Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau. He said their friendship "was at the heart of this case" and there was a "deep bond" between them.

Lord Macdonald told the jury that they had to consider whether the pair would "drive to commit a crime to save money" which in the worst case scenario would amount to less than £70,000.

The court was adjourned at 3.15pm and will return at 10am on Tuesday for the summing up of Judge Anthony Leonard before the jury retires to consider its verdict.

Harry Redknapp and the club directors who have supported him during the trial were due to catch a flight from City airport to Liverpool for tonight's crunch Premier League clash.

The trial continues.

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