Harry Redknapp 'insulted' by claims he lied during tax evasion trial

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/feb/02/harry-redknapp-insulted-lied-trial

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The Tottenham Hotspur manager, Harry Redknapp, has furiously denied lying to his tax evasion trial, describing prosecution claims that he has not told the truth while under oath as "an insult".

Redknapp, 64, said it was absolutely not true that £189,000 paid into his offshore account in Monaco was given to him as bonuses during his time as manager of Portsmouth Football Club. It was, he insisted, given to him as a personal investment fund by Milan Mandaric, his former boss at Portsmouth and co-accused, and had nothing to do with the club.

When John Black QC, prosecuting, put it to Redknapp that he had been telling the court "a pack of lies", the football manager grew visibly emotional.

"You think I've put my hand on the bible and told lies? That's an insult, Mr Black, that's an insult," he said. "Everything I've told you has been the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God."

An indignant Redknapp then snapped: "Bring the bible up here again and I will put my hand on it." The manager hit back at suggestions that he had deliberately sought to evade tax, adding: "I'm the most ungreedy person you have met in your whole life, Mr Black. Ever. Ever."

Before losing his temper, Redknapp had laughed off the prosecution's attempts to bring up his financial history, describing himself as "a bit of a gambler" and saying that his poor investment sense had nearly "wiped out" his son Jamie, who was in the public gallery.

Earlier, Redknapp admitted to the jury at Southwark crown court that he lied to a News of the World journalist about how an initial payment of almost £100,000 came to be in his Monaco account.

Redknapp said he had told the reporter, Rob Beasley, that $145,000 (£93,100) in his account was a bonus paid to him for the sale of Peter Crouch because he wanted to get Beasley off the phone.

Redknapp and Mandaric are accused of cheating the public revenue over sums totalling £189,000. They deny the payments to the Monaco account were bonuses, arguing that the Monaco account was set up purely to provide personal investment opportunities for Redknapp.

When Black asked Redknapp why he had told Beasley the money was a bonus - and contradicted Mandaric's claim that it was an unrelated investment account – the football manager said he had done so to get rid of the reporter.

"I don't have to tell Mr Beasley the truth," said Redknapp. "I have to tell the police the truth, but not Mr Beasley. He's a News of the World reporter."

He said he had decided to lie because he did not want to read a story appearing in the paper on the day that Spurs were due to take on Manchester United in the 2009 League Cup final.

During cross-examination on the ninth day of the trial, Redknapp repeatedly insisted that despite what he had told Beasley, the first sum paid into the Monaco account was a personal investment. Redknapp said that although he felt he was due 10% on the sale of Crouch to Aston Villa in 2002, he had settled on 5% after being told that that was all he was contractually entitled to.

Redknapp denied being a liar, but said that misdirecting Beasley was "the easy way out".

Black then accused him of "letting the cat out of the bag" during the phone conversation.

Redknapp replied: "Why would I let the cat out of the bag to the News of the World if I had done anything wrong? Do you think me and Mr Mandaric are going to have completely different stories? Are we that stupid?"

When asked again why he had offered a "false story" to Beasley, he said: "I just want to get him off my back. This is the easy way out for me before a cup final."

In any case, said Redknapp, he had always considered the payments to be linked to Crouch.

"In my mind it was always related to Crouch even though it wasn't connected," he said.

"I felt morally I was due that money even though legally I wasn't."

If Mandaric had agreed to the further 5% that Redknapp felt he was owed, he said, he could have arranged it easily enough through the club. Redknapp added, sarcastically: "But no, he decided to go to some exotic plan and that's where we've all ended up today."

Neither he nor Mandaric, he said, was "silly" enough to have embarked on such a course to evade so little money in tax. Mandaric, he added, had presided over "$2bn companies; we're not talking about a skint member".

There was, said Redknapp, "not a chance" that he and Mandaric would have cooked up such a scheme.

Although he claimed it was a coincidence that he had gone to Monaco to open the investment account just four days after learning that he would not get the full 10%, Redknapp said it was possible that Mandaric had brought up the subject of the much-discussed investment fund at around the same time because he could see that Redknapp "had the hump" following the sale of Crouch.

"I'd never been to Monaco in my life," Redknapp said. "And I certainly won't be going again."

Redknapp also told the court that had it not been for his decision to co-operate with the 2006 Quest inquiry into bungs in English football, the issue of the Monaco account would be "dead".

Other football managers had not voluntarily declared accounts, he told the jury.

"As I have said many times, Mr Black, If I don't go to Quest and tell them about that account, nobody knows," Redknapp said.

"Half the managers didn't even tell them," Redknapp said. "If I didn't tell them it's dead."

The frequently tense exchanges between Redknapp and Black were lightened before lunch when Redknapp referred to his affection for his late bulldog Rosie, explaining that he had named his Monaco account after her because "I loved her to bits".

He said that he had had to add his birth date to the name as there was another Monaco HSBC account called Rosie.

When the prosecutor suggested that someone else might have had a dog by the same name, Redknapp shot back: "Please, Mr Black, it could be someone's wife," adding: "If she was as nice as Rosie they have got a good wife."

Redknapp also told Black that he was aware that the sums being transferred were large amounts. He said: "I was brought up in the East End of London, Mr Black, in a very poor family. I know it's a lot of money."

The trial also heard from the TV presenter and former Arsenal goalkeeper, Bob Wilson, who paid tribute to all the work Redknapp has done for the charity that Wilson and his wife set up in memory of their daughter Anna, who died from cancer in 1998. Wilson said Redknapp's generosity had made a huge contribution to helping young people with cancer.

"He's an amazing guy for giving his time and always has been," said Wilson.

The jury was then read a statement from someone who had read press coverage of the trial and wanted to confirm that Redknapp was a very kind individual.

The witness, whose name was not read out in court, said that Redknapp had personally intervened to invite a former Spurs player now suffering from ill health to visit the club and have a cup of tea with him.

"How considerate and kind was that?" the person said in the statement.

"I'd say it's confirmation that he's a giver not a taker."

Redknapp, of Poole, Dorset, and Mandaric, 73, from Oadby, Leicestershire, deny two counts of cheating the public revenue. The trial continues.