The trial of Harry Redknapp and Milan Mandaric cost HMRC less than £300,000, a spokesperson told Tax Journal today.
The trial of Harry Redknapp and Milan Mandaric cost HMRC less than £300,000, a spokesperson told Tax Journal today.
HMRC said yesterday that it did not recognise estimates of total costs between £8m and £10m – including those incurred by the Crown Prosecution Service – but it would be difficult to provide estimates because HMRC investigators were running other investigations in parallel with the Redknapp and Mandaric case.
‘The fact is that this has cost HMRC less then £300,000. Whilst we would rather have won the case the important thing was to get the facts in front of a jury and that’s happened,’ a spokesperson said today.
Redknapp, the Tottenham Hotspur manager, and Mandaric, the former Portsmouth chairman, were acquitted of cheating the public revenue earlier this week.
The Daily Mail reported that John Kelsey-Fry QC, the defence barrister, had called for an investigation into the ‘huge wasted cost of bringing the tax evasion case to court’. Kelsey-Fry estimated that costs could amount to ‘as much as £10m’.
The BBC news website reported today that Crown Prosecution Service costs at the end of 2011 stood at £944,782 for ‘the employment of external barristers to argue its case during two trials related to accusations of tax dodging by senior executives at Portsmouth’.
‘Operation Apprentice’ resulted in Mandaric and Peter Storrie, the former Portsmouth chief executive, being tried for tax evasion. They were acquitted in October 2011 after a month-long trial.
The CPS confirmed that fees for counsel in the two trials stood at £944,782 up to the end of 2011. Final invoices had not yet been received.
‘We do not know where the figure of £8m originates,’ a spokesperson told Tax Journal, adding that without published figures it would be ‘speculation’.
The City of London Police said it was not possible to calculate the force’s costs accurately because officers were at various times engaged on other investigations and activity.
The trial of Harry Redknapp and Milan Mandaric cost HMRC less than £300,000, a spokesperson told Tax Journal today.
The trial of Harry Redknapp and Milan Mandaric cost HMRC less than £300,000, a spokesperson told Tax Journal today.
HMRC said yesterday that it did not recognise estimates of total costs between £8m and £10m – including those incurred by the Crown Prosecution Service – but it would be difficult to provide estimates because HMRC investigators were running other investigations in parallel with the Redknapp and Mandaric case.
‘The fact is that this has cost HMRC less then £300,000. Whilst we would rather have won the case the important thing was to get the facts in front of a jury and that’s happened,’ a spokesperson said today.
Redknapp, the Tottenham Hotspur manager, and Mandaric, the former Portsmouth chairman, were acquitted of cheating the public revenue earlier this week.
The Daily Mail reported that John Kelsey-Fry QC, the defence barrister, had called for an investigation into the ‘huge wasted cost of bringing the tax evasion case to court’. Kelsey-Fry estimated that costs could amount to ‘as much as £10m’.
The BBC news website reported today that Crown Prosecution Service costs at the end of 2011 stood at £944,782 for ‘the employment of external barristers to argue its case during two trials related to accusations of tax dodging by senior executives at Portsmouth’.
‘Operation Apprentice’ resulted in Mandaric and Peter Storrie, the former Portsmouth chief executive, being tried for tax evasion. They were acquitted in October 2011 after a month-long trial.
The CPS confirmed that fees for counsel in the two trials stood at £944,782 up to the end of 2011. Final invoices had not yet been received.
‘We do not know where the figure of £8m originates,’ a spokesperson told Tax Journal, adding that without published figures it would be ‘speculation’.
The City of London Police said it was not possible to calculate the force’s costs accurately because officers were at various times engaged on other investigations and activity.
