Harry Redknapp Trial: Defence Case To Open For Tottenham Boss

Defence Case To Open In Redknapp Trial

Barristers defending bung allegations against Harry Redknapp and Milan Mandaric are today expected to open their cases.

Prosecutor John Black QC will give final submissions before the jury hear from Mandaric's brief, Lord Ken Macdonald QC.

Evidence will resume after Redknapp told police his home was at risk after he lost millions of pounds in disastrous investments.

The Tottenham Hotspur boss has also denied tax dodging by telling officers: "I write like a two-year-old and I can't spell."

It has yet to be confirmed whether former Portsmouth chairman Mandaric, 73, or Redknapp, 64, will give evidence in the coming days.

The jury has heard how Redknapp urged detectives to ask his solicitor if he had "ever come across anyone as bad, businesswise".

He said he lost £6 million in a property venture in Southsea, Hampshire, and had squandered £250,000 to help his friend Jim Smith keep his managerial job at Oxford United.

Redknapp - tipped as a future England boss - also said he had paid £1 million in tax in 2008, before adding: "We are givers not takers."

Both Redknapp, of Poole, Dorset, and Mandaric, from Oadby, Leicestershire, deny two counts of cheating the public revenue when Redknapp was manager of Portsmouth Football Club.

Prosecutors say Redknapp dodged tax by receiving £189,000 in transfer bonuses in a Monaco account in the name of his dog, Rosie.

One of the payments during his time at Portsmouth was over the £3 million profit the club made on the sale of England star Peter Crouch, the jury has been told.

The first charge of cheating the public revenue alleges that between April 1 2002 and November 28 2007 Mandaric paid 145,000 US dollars (£93,100) into the account.

The second charge for the same offence relates to a sum of 150,000 US dollars (£96,300) allegedly paid between 1 May, 2004 and 28 November, 2007.

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