Football boss Harry Redknapp has admitted lying to a News of the World reporter over transfer payments and "plucking the wrong figure" out of the air.
Fighting back tears, the Tottenham Hotspur manager denied prosecution claims he "desperately" tried to cover up allegations the £189,000 Monaco payments were bonuses for transfer profits.
Tottenham boss Redknapp and Milan Mandaric deny charges that they cheated the public revenue during their time at Portsmouth.
Redknapp admitted he gave sports journalist Rob Beasley the wrong information to prevent a story appearing in the Sunday tabloid as Spurs were due to take on Manchester United in the 2009 League Cup final.
However he denied he was under any obligation to tell the News of the World the truth, or that he had "let the cat out the bag" during a phone conversation to Beasley: "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 (Milan) Mandaric are going to have completely different stories. Are we that stupid?"
Redknapp said he only lied to prevent being left shame-faced by his players reading the story in the News of the World.
"I just wanted to get Mr Beasley out the way - I just didn't want a story in the paper.... I was going to come down to breakfast and all my players were going to be looking at the back page of the News of the World. It was going to be embarrassing."
Appearing in the stand at Southwark Crown Court for a second day, Redknapp defended himself: "I don't have to tell Mr Beasley the truth. I have to tell police the truth, not Mr Beasley, he's a News of the World reporter."
Redknapp said: "Sometimes I may say the wrong words but I do not do it purposely."
He said the payments were "one million percent not my bonus" and the account "was so far from my mind it was unbelievable".
Redknapp said he had paid £8 million in taxes so why would they "bother" (about the £189,000 Monaco payments.)
"I only asked Mr Mandaric once about the account - the away win at Blackburn (in 2004)," Redknapp said.
"He said 'Disaster, Harry' - I didn't ask again."
Redknapp said that if he "thought there was money there, I would have brought it back a long time ago".
"We could have spent it, no problem," Redknapp added.
He said he told Beasley the wrong information, not because he was a liar but because it was the "easy way out"
He said he referred to payments as bonuses that he was due for the sale of Peter Crouch from Portsmouth to Aston Villa because: "I wanted to make the point to Mr Beasley that it was paid by my chairman."
He added "I referred to it to him many times as my Crouch bonus" because "Crouch is an easy answer".
The payments were linked to Crouch "in my mind", Redknapp added.
"In my mind, it was always related to Crouch even though it wasn't connected.
"I felt morally I was due that money even though legally I wasn't."
When asked again why he had offered a "false story" to Mr Beasley, Redknapp, wearing tortoiseshell glasses and a navy blue suit, added: "I just want to get him off my back. This is the easy way out for me before a Cup Final."
Tape recordings of Redknapp talking to Mr Beasley were played in court.
Mr Black focused on Redknapp saying "Well, what did he give it to me for then?" when Mr Beasley said Mandaric claimed the payments were an investment, not a bonus.
Mr Black asked earlier if Redknapp was "desperately trying to hide" that it was a bonus.
Redknapp replied: "Absolutely not."
When asked if he had been misleading, Redknapp repeated: "Absolutely not."
He went on to say: "You could be under the illusion (it was a bonus) but you would be wrong."
He said "I wasn't sure what the sum was, Mr Black" when he first mentioned the account to Quest Premier League bung investigators.
When asked if he plucked a figure out of the air, Redknapp replied: "I did and I plucked the wrong figure, didn't I?"
The defendant was asked about the £300,000 he received outside his contract at West Ham United for the sale of Rio Ferdinand to Leeds United.
When asked whether responsibility for paying the tax was the club's, Redknapp replied: "Yes."
Both former Portsmouth boss Redknapp, of Dorset, and Mandaric, 73, of Leicestershire, deny two counts of cheating the public revenue.
He has been extremely insistent in the defence of his story, yesterday addressing a policeman from the dock “Stop staring at me. I know you’re trying to cause me a problem.”
Redknapp has previously denied feigning ignorance of a bank account in Monaco set up under his dog's name Rosie. Laughter echoed around the court, after Redknapp said that he registered his Monaco account under name of his pet dog Rosie because he "loved her to bits."
He said he had to add his birthdate to the name of the account because there was another account in Monaco called Rosie
When prosecutor John Black QC suggested that might be because someone else might have had a dog by the same name, Redknapp said: "Or wife".
He added: "If she was as nice as Rosie they have got a good wife."
Redknapp has previously claimed that he would not be able to "fiddle taxes" as he pays his accountant a fortune to look after him and he "writes like a two year old and can't spell."