Football greats speak in fraud case

Published on Wednesday 26 August 2009 21:58

TWO greats of Scottish football told a jury yesterday of their pride at being involved with Livingston during the club's "golden years", as its former chairman is accused of a £2.3 million fraud.

Former Scotland international Davie Hay said his time as coach in West Lothian was a highlight of his management career. Jim Leishman described Livingston's rise from the lower divisions to European qualification as phenomenal.

The High Court in Edinburgh heard that Dominic Keane, the club's chairman in those days, had worked tirelessly to help realise "The Vision" – the quest for success he shared with Willie Haughey and John McGuinness.

Keane, 54, is accused of obtaining 2m in loans from the Royal Bank of Scotland by fraud in 2001, and exposing Mr Haughey, 53, a multi-millionaire businessman, and Mr McGuinness, 45, a 10m lottery winner, to court action by the bank to recover the debt.

Yesterday, Hay, 61, was called as a defence witness and said he had played for Celtic, Chelsea and Scotland, and managed Motherwell, Celtic and St Mirren before joining Livingston in 2000. The club won promotion to the Scottish Premier League and won the CIS Cup.

"It was one of the highlights of my football management career," said Mr Hay.

He said Keane was "more hands-on" than Mr Haughey and Mr McGuinness. "They were not involved in the day-to-day running of the club as Dom was."

Jim Leishman, 55, said he, too, held the manager's post. "The Vision" was to achieve SPL status, and it was achieved. "It was phenomenal," he said.

The club was put into administration in 2004, and RBS sued the three men.

Mr Haughey said he paid 1.1m to settle the case on legal advice. Mr McGuinness said he had lost up to 4m on Livingston. Keane did not defend the action, and was bankrupted. The trial continues.