Harry Redknapp cleared of tax dodge

Feb 8 2012

Football boss Harry Redknapp has been cleared of taking bungs in an offshore tax dodge.

The Tottenham Hotspur manager's hopes of leading the England team received a major boost as he walked free from court.

Jurors accepted Redknapp's angry denials that he avoided tax on any payments over £189,000 found in a Monaco account.

His acquittal alongside co-defendant Milan Mandaric blows the final whistle on a five-year £8 million police investigation which failed to yield a single conviction.

Mandaric and former Portsmouth chief executive Peter Storrie were also cleared of £600,000 tax dodge claims at a previous trial, it can be reported for the first time.

Redknapp and Mandaric hugged as the jury cleared them of all counts.

Redknapp was at times moved to the verge of tears as the Crown alleged that he told a pack of lies in an attempt to get off the hook.

But jurors accepted Redknapp and Mandaric's evidence that the Monaco account in the name of Redknapp's dog, Rosie, was nothing to do with footballing matters.

The two-week trial at London's Southwark Crown Court threatened to derail Redknapp's progress at the pinnacle of his 30-year managerial career.

The verdicts mark a disastrous end of an exhaustive inquiry into football corruption by tax authorities and City of London Police.