Redknapp waits on verdict as tax evasion trial nears conclusion at last
TOTTENHAM boss and England manager elect Harry Redknapp could discover whether he has been found guilty of alleged tax evasion as early as today.
Jurors will be sent to deliberate on their verdict after the judge delivers his final summing up at Southwark Crown Court this morning, following more than two weeks of hearings.
Redknapp and co-accused Milan Mandaric, the former Portsmouth chairman, deny cheating the taxman in relation to payments totalling £189,400 made to Redknapp’s Monaco account.
The court heard yesterday that the prosecution’s case against Redknapp was “illogical”.
Redknapp’s barrister John Kelsey-Fry QC said in his closing argument that the 64-year-old’s volunteering of information about his offshore account showed he was not attempting to dodge tax.
Mandaric and Redknapp argue that the two disputed payments were effectively loans with which the manager, then at Portsmouth, was to invest for his own gain. The prosecution claims the sums were bonus payments due to Redknapp for the sale of striker Peter Crouch made in secret to avoid income tax and National Insurance contributions.
Mandaric’s counsel Lord MacDonald QC said there was “nothing even slightly sinister” about the payments.
“In Milan Mandaric’s mind this was not money for Crouch; this was Milan Mandaric coming through on money he had promised months before – for a portfolio,” MacDonald added.
The trial continues.