Ibrox fraud fiasco cost to taxpayer has passed £40m
Proceedings left Crown Office £14m over budget
TAXPAYERS face a further bill over the Rangers fraud fiasco after MSPs were told two wrongful prosecution cases are outstanding.
Compensation payments and legal costs have passed £40million, which auditors described as ‘significant public spending’.
Administrators David Whitehouse and Paul Clark were arrested in 2014 but the Crown Office later dropped charges and admitted their prosecutions were ‘malicious’. They each received £10.5million in an outof-court settlement in 2020, with £3million paid out in legal costs.
The Lord Advocate also admitted that former Rangers chief executive Charles Green and former director Imran Ahmad should never have been prosecuted, with Mr Green receiving more than £6million last year in compensation plus legal costs.
Audit Scotland officials were giving evidence to the Scottish parliament’s public audit committee yesterday. During the 2020/21 year, costs of £40million were shown to have been incurred in relation to legal action stemming from the prosland’s ecutions. One of the two outstanding cases was raised by Mr Ahmad. Last year he received a public apology from James Wolffe, QC, former head of Scotprosecution service. Mr Ahmad will also receive significant damages estimated at up to £30million after he was wrongly prosecuted in 2015 on fraud charges related to the takeover of the Ibrox club in 2012. All charges were dropped in 2018.
The other outstanding case relates to former Rangers administrator Duff & Phelps, which is suing the Crown Office for £25million over the malicious prosecutions scandal. Audit Scotland’s analysis of the Scottish Government’s annual accounts said the Crown Office had overspent its annual budget by £14.6million due to unplanned costs of ongoing proceedings.
Committee convener Richard Leonard asked the auditors about the Rangers case, saying it accounted for almost all compensation payments made by the Crown Office during the financial year. He asked if there were ‘fundamental concerns’ about the Crown Office’s financial position.
Auditor General Stephen Boyle said: ‘It’s a significant amount of public spending.
‘The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service accounts are consolidated into the Scottish Government’s accounts.’
Mr Boyle said he was reluctant to carry out further audits of the cases until a judge-led inquiry had taken place.
Senior audit manager Helen Russell told the MSPs: ‘There are six cases involved, two of which have been fully closed and completed. A third case has been settled. I’m sure you will have read in the press that a fourth case has in fact been thrown out by the courts.
‘That leaves two cases which remain ongoing at this point.’
‘Fundamental concerns’