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Jul 27 2012

kenneth mure qc Image 2

THIS is the man who will be taking the decision on the Rangers Big Tax case.

Scots barrister Kenneth Mure QC is chairing the three-person tribunal on the £50million offshore tax
avoidance schemes which helped drag Rangers into financial disaster.

The schemes – known as Employee Benefit Trusts – were run by the club between 2001 and 2010 during Sir David Murray’s ownership.

Rangers set up the foreign trusts for 87 players and staff – then paid cash into them in addition to their regular wages, which meant UK tax was avoided on the extra money.

Ex-skipper Barry Ferguson pocketed £2.49million tax- free. Former manager Alex McLeish got £1.7million and German keeper Stefan Klos was given £2million.

Ex-chairman Murray himself got £6.3million via an EBT, although he says the money came via Murray International Holdings, not the club.

The Inland Revenue believe the Rangers EBT payments were against the law, a claim Rangers disputed at every stage of the tribunal.

A possible multi-million pound fine over the EBTs was one of the reasons Bank of Scotland pressured Murray into selling the club for £1 to Craig Whyte last year.

Mure is presiding over the tax tribunal with accountancy experts Dr Heidi Poon and Scott Rae.

But last night, Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service said there is no set date for when the decision will be known.

The result was originally expected around Easter, after Rangers went into administration but before the club were liquidated.

But a courts service spokeswoman said last night: “There has never been a set time for a decision.

“All the evidence has been heard and it is now a matter of the ruling being issued.”

The spokeswoman would not say when the evidence part of the procedure had begun, how many days
it had lasted, or who gave evidence.

The determination issued by the tribunal, with Mure as judge, will address what measures could be taken by HMRC against Rangers now the club have ceased to exist in their old form.

But even if the tribunal rules against Rangers, there is little the taxman can do to retrieve any fine imposed.

Financial expert Neil Patey, a partner in accountancy giants Ernst and Young, said: “HMRC will have no claim on the newco. The newco bought the assets of the oldco, not its corporate history.

“In essence, a victory for HMRC will mean it will get a significantly bigger proportion of the £1million or so available from the £5.5million put in by Charles Green’s consortium. This will obviously mean other creditors get significantly less.”

Jul 27 2012
Exclusive by Stephen Stewart

neil lennon celtic Image 1

NEIL Lennon is being chased for legal costs after losing more than £100,000 in a tax scheme and failing to get his cash back.

Experts say the Celtic manager and his fellow investors could face a bill of up to £20million after a judge threw out their lawsuit.

And the group going after the money include lawyers Collyer Bristow, who advised Craig Whyte on his
disastrous takeover of Rangers.

Lennon put £200,000 into two investment schemes in 2003, when he was earning £30,000 a week at Celtic.

He was told they would save him almost £500,000 in income tax.

Celtic striker John Hartson, England goalkeeper Paul Robinson and English rugby stars Joe Worsley and Jason Leonard also invested cash.

But they all lost out after the Inland Revenue said the schemes were against tax rules.

Lennon only got back £80,000 of his money – and received none of the tax benefits he was promised.

The schemes’ architect, disgraced Danish entrepreneur Bjorn Stiedl, was jailed for an unrelated pension fraud in 2004.

Lennon and more than 500 other investors teamed up to sue the company behind the schemes, Innovator One. Stiedl was the driving force behind the firm.

But they all lost out after the Inland Revenue said the schemes were against tax rules.

The highly complex investment plans were designed to exploit tax breaks for investors who put their money into software and technology.

The incentives were brought in after the dotcom crash hit technology shares on global stock markets in 2000.

Lennon put a total of £200,000 into two schemes – one called Mamjam Technology Platform Partnership and another called Casedirector Technology Partnership.

Investors put in a little more than £6million.

The schemes then took out another £19million in bank loans and used the cash to buy software from another company.

The idea was that Lennon would be able to count £800,000 of the borrowed money as part of his investment, giving him a total of £1million and allowing him to reduce his income tax bill by £400,000.

But the company who sold the software to the schemes then put the borrowed money on deposit with the bank, meaning it had effectively gone round in a circle.

And the taxman ruled that, because of that, the investors could only claim tax breaks on the money they had put in themselves.

That meant Lennon would only have got back up to £80,000.

And since the investment scheme failed, the rest of his stake was wiped out, saddling him with a £120,000 loss.

Hartson invested £120,000 in the same two schemes as his former teammate. He joined Lennon and the other investors in the lawsuit against Innovator One.

They claimed at the High Court in London that the schemes were fraudulent and had been badly put together.

In all, they alleged, their investments had been mis-sold for more than a dozen different reasons.

But judge Mr Justice Hamblen rejected their case.

He ruled: “Although the claimants were understandably aggrieved to lose their cash contributions and receive back only limited tax relief, there are obvious risks in going into aggressive tax schemes which offer the prospect of almost immediately doubling your money.”

Collyer Bristow were one of the defendants in the lawsuit after acting as lawyers for Innovator One, and are now preparing to try to claim back their costs from the investors.

A costs hearing is expected later in the year. No date has been set.

If the bill does reach £20million, it will leave the 555 investors facing costs of £36,000 each. Lennon and Hartson declined to comment.

The Innovator One schemes were similar to more recent schemes involving film financing which have also proved popular among footballers because of promises to massively lower their income tax bills. But the film schemes have often proved similarly unsuccessful, with the taxman refusing to hand over rebates.

Collyer Bristow advised Whyte on his takeover of Rangers and handled the money paid by Ticketus in exchange for the rights to future Ibrox season ticket sales.

Whyte’s lawyer at Collyer Bristow, Gary Withey, briefly served as Rangers company secretary. But he claimed he had no involvement in the day-to-day running of the club and knew nothing about the decision by Whyte not to pay income tax and VAT.

He quit Collyer Bristow in March, claiming he and his family had been threatened because of his Rangers involvement.

Rangers’ administrators, Duff Phelps, sued Collyer Bristow and Rangers FC Group – the company Whyte used as a vehicle for his takeover – for £25million in April.

They claimed Whyte and Withey conspired to buy Rangers when they knew they didn’t have the money to do so, and the club’s board shelved plans for a £25million share issue as a result.

A full hearing in the case has been set for October.

Collyer Bristow and Withey deny wrongdoing and the law firm have vowed to strongly contest the claims, which they have described as “highly speculative”.

Jul 27 2012
By Brian McIver

Red Arrows will perform at the opening ceremony of the London Olympics

HE’S the only Scot at the London Olympics who will be going faster than Sir Chris Hoy.

But Flight Lieutenant Martin Pert does have a huge advantage – his Red Arrows jet.

The 31-year-old RAF fighter pilot from Paisley is the only Scot in the Red Arrow team, who will perform a 600mph flypast over the Olympic stadium in London tonight.

The Red Arrows, flying Hawks, will also make flypasts at Olympics opening ceremony celebrations across the UK in Edinburgh, Belfast and Cardiff.

Last night, RAF ace Martin said: “The Olympic flypast could easily be the absolute pinnacle of my career as we go over the stadium and all of the Olympic live sites across the UK on the same day.

“There is a feeling of immense pride to be part of events like this and it will be an amazing day.”

Martin, who has seen active duty in Afghanistan, has been with the Arrows for just under a year.

Until today, he cited his finest moment in the Arrows cockpit as the Buckingham Palace fly past for the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations in June.

He said: “The Jubilee was amazing. We weren’t blessed with the greatest weather so it was a bit of a nervy trip but it was a huge privilege.

“It sank in later when we watched it on TV and got to see the reaction of the crowd and the Queen.”

When he signed up for the Red Arrows last year, the fighter pilot was fulfilling a childhood ambition. As an eight-year-old, he was taken to a show at RAF Leuchars to see the Arrows.

He recalled: “It seemed like such an inspiring thing to do.

“I remember seeing the Red Arrows and I couldn’t believe you could get nine aircraft in such a small area of sky. I looked on in amazement.

“That really planted the seed for the future for me.”

Martin joined the Air Cadets and his first flight was in a Chipmunk two-seater at the age of 12.

On leaving school 12 years ago, he immediately joined the RAF.

Flying Hawks, Tucanos and Harriers, Martin progressed through four years of flight training and was asked to become an instructor, before serving in Afghanistan.

Only three new pilots are accepted into the prestigious Red Arrows squadron every year, and enjoy a three- year rotation.

Martin said: “I had always wanted to go into the Red Arrows. There’s six months of training, which is pretty intense, and a lot of hard work, but when you arrive to do to the displays you really see the fruits of your labour because the crowds absolutely love it.”

He added: “The Hawk is a great plane. It’s much more sprightly than other jets and flies up to 660mph.

“It’s everything you dream about and more.”

After his Olympic adventure today, Martin will make his first Scottish air show appearance at the National Museum of Flight in East Lothian.

He said: “This will be my first time in Scotland with the Red Arrows. I have flown at the East Fortune museum for a solo event, but it will be very different to do this with the team.”

● The air show at the National Museum of Flight, East Fortune, takes place tomorrow from 10am to 5pm. See www.nms.ac.uk

Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders at a checkpoint in the Olympic Park

Kate Middleton plays table tennis