Banker: No pressure on Rangers for Whyte deal

A BANKER yesterday claimed Lloyds did not put pressure on Rangers to accept a deal with Craig Whyte by threatening to withdraw its credit facility.

Ian Shanks, a senior official with the club’s bank Lloyds when Whyte’s interest became known in 2010, said the bid appeared to be of ‘substance’ but the bank had been simply ‘a bystander looking to get the debt repaid’.

Rangers at the time had a sizeable debt to Lloyds, including an £18million loan. At the High Court in Glasgow, Whyte, 46, denies a charge of fraud and a second allegation under the Companies Act in connection with his 2011 takeover.

The role of Mr Shanks at the time involved him working with struggling companies which used the bank. The Murray group run by Sir David Murray, then owner of Rangers, was said to owe ‘an enormous’ amount to Lloyds, running into ‘hundreds of millions’.

Whyte’s QC Donald Findlay suggested there was ‘a war going on behind the scenes’ in the run-up to Whyte’s takeover and that the bank ‘lacked trust’ in the then Rangers board.

The jury was told also of emails between Mr Shanks and his boss at the bank, including one in which Alastair Johnston, then chairman at Ibrox, was branded ‘a major liability’.

Mr Johnston had handed the club chief executive, Martin Bain, a new contract without getting approval.

‘These are the people running Rangers Football Club,’ Mr Findlay said to Mr Shanks. ‘No wonder things were going bust?’

Mr Shanks replied: ‘I don’t believe things were going bust.’

The trial, before Judge Lady Stacey, continues.

‘No wonder things were going bust?’