Inquiry demand into Rangers prosecutions after £24m payout

An independent public inquiry must be held into malicious prosecutions by Scotland's Crown Office in connection with the collapse of Rangers almost a decade ago, MSPs have heard.

David Whitehouse, left, and Paul Clark were appointed the joint administrators of Rangers in 2012

Tory Murdo Fraser told fellow MSPs on Tuesday that £24 million of taxpayers’ cash has reportedly been paid out to administrators after they were wrongly prosecuted over their role in the takeover of the Glasgow club.

And it emerged Lord Advocate James Wolfe will make a statement to MSPs on the issue when the case is finally disposed of in court.

The Lord Advocate has already admitted acting maliciously in seeking to prosecute four men over the 2012 takeover of the Ibrox club, while a fifth man is pursuing a similar claim.

Two of the men, administrators David Whitehouse and Paul Clarke, reached an out-of-court settlement with Police Scotland for an undisclosed sum in November.

They also reached an agreement with the Lord Advocate, who heads up the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS), in December. The exact amount of the settlements remains unconfirmed.

But Mr Fraser said: “If we are to believe media reports, David Whitehouse and Paul Clarke, have already been paid the sum of £24m in taxpayers’ money, with other claims still pending.”

The pair were arrested in 2014 along with Duff and Phelps colleague David Grier. All charges were dropped.

Mr Fraser demanded an independent probe at the Scottish Parliament on Tuesday.

“This was not just a mistake, but a sinister abuse of state power that strikes at the very heart of Scotland’s criminal justice system,” he said.

“It will end up costing taxpayers tens of millions of pounds yet we have heard no explanation from either the Lord Advocate or the SNP justice secretary.

“Who could possibly imagine that Scotland would become the kind of country in which the full power of the state to prosecute people who they knew to be innocent?

“People will be angry, disgusted and deeply concerned that Sturgeon’s Scotland is capable of the type of tactics we typically see in Putin’s Russia."

Mr Fraser said the probe should set out the full cost to taxpayers, as well as the Lord Advocate’s dual role as head of the prosecution service and a government minister.

The role of previous Lord Advocates and Police Scotland should also be looked at.

Mr Fraser and the party’s shadow justice secretary Liam Kerr met last week with two of the men.

Mr Fraser added: “Meeting with two of these men and hearing their personal accounts was harrowing and I admire they and their lawyers’ tenacious fight for justice.

“If the Crown had got their way, they would have been jailed, financially ruined and had their reputations destroyed.

“A full public inquiry is absolutely vital to ensure the public see exactly what went wrong and why."

Finance secretary Kate Forbes told MSPs she could not confirm the numbers involved, but said it would not affect the day-to-day operations of the Crown Office, including services to victims and witnesses

She said: “The Lord Advocate intends to make a statement to the Scottish Parliament in this respect at the earliest opportunity and I’m sure Murdo Fraser will have the opportunity to put questions at that point.”

A message from the Editor:Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by Coronavirus impacts our advertisers.

If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription.