A TOP judge has expressed incredulity over prosecutors' decision to apologise to former Rangers administrators, adding that they shouldn’t have received a major compensation payout.
Former lord advocate James Wolffe was berated by his predecessor in a leaked memo after settling a case which saw the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) admitting to wrongdoing in its attempts to prosecute administrators involved with the Ibrox club.
David Whitehouse and Paul Clark of Duff & Phelps were appointed as administrators after the club’s collapse in 2012, but were arrested in 2014 alongside several other businessmen.
All charges brought against the men were eventually dropped outside of court, with the COPFS paying out more than £50 million in compensation for malicious prosecution.
Wolffe apologised at the time, saying that former Rangers chief executive Charles Green and ex-director Imran Ahmad should never have faced prosecution.
“In this particular case there was a very serious failure in the system of prosecution, with Green receiving around £6m in compensation and legal costs,” he said.
“What happened in this particular case should not have happened, I tender my apology to the parliament and the public that it did happen, and for the consequent cost to the public purse.”
But Frank Mulholland, one of Scotland’s most senior judges who served as lord advocate when the prosecutions were brought forward, expressed "incredulity" at the decision and insisted his office was right to pursue the people involved with Rangers.
An email, obtained by the Sunday Mail, read: “The evidence in this case points to fraudulent behaviour … involving many millions of pounds.
“There was a clear sufficiency of evidence. It is not finely balanced, there was a clear sufficiency.
“This is why I expressed surprise (now incredulity) at the decision to settle the case on the basis of a malicious prosecution and all the reputational damage that flows from such a decision.”
Craig Whyte bought Rangers for £1 from David Murray in May 2011, but it went into administration in February 2012, with the club ultimately liquidated.
Green purchased the assets for £5.5m and formed a new company.
In his email, Mulholland cites an email from within Duff & Phelps which stated: “We are not broadcasting involvement to anyone in case guy who has bought it, our client, makes a mess of the whole thing. We don’t want to be associated too heavily.
"The guy who bought hasn’t got a f****** clue - no plan, no strategy, did very little DD (due diligence) - it is honestly baffling.
“He only went ahead and did it as hasn’t risked any of his own cash - paid £1 for shares and funded repayment of bank debt by forward selling three years’ worth of season tickets revenue. So everyone thinks he is a saviour but in fact it is all a big front and club has as much debt as it had before, just to someone else.”
Defending the decision to prosecute, Mulholland added: “I did nothing wrong, nor did I see any wrongful (or negligent) behaviour amongst the prosecution team. As you will appreciate, I would not have countenanced such behaviour and I would have arrested such behaviour had it come to my attention.”
Mulholland also said he would “reserve the right to take any action I consider appropriate” regarding public statements made about the settlement.
A public inquiry into the handling of the investigation has been promised but has so far not materialised.
Whitehouse told the Sunday Mail: “The attempt by Mulholland to obfuscate responsibility for his behaviour shouldn’t surprise anyone, desperate people say desperate things. It is equally unsurprising that his desperate requests were ignored by those in charge at the time.
"What is of greatest importance is that the long awaited promised public inquiry takes place without further delay, as this is the forum which will fully expose all the facts, many of which are well known to both me and Mulholland. This is the forum which will lay bare the scandalous behaviour of the Crown Office and particularly Frank Mulholland.”
The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service said: “Following a detailed review of the case, the Lord Advocate accepted that there had been significant departures from the normal practices designed to ensure prosecutions are brought on a proper basis.
“The Crown supports a process of inquiry into what happened.”
