Profile: Craig Whyte - combative owner at the centre of a media storm

COMBATIVE businessman Craig Whyte has rarely been out of the media glare since his takeover last year.The Rangers owner describes himself as “a prolific deal-maker” with more than 20 other businesses across the UK and Europe.

Since his takeover of the Scottish Premier League club, those businesses have come under increasing scrutiny.

Mr Whyte has declined to comment on some of the allegations and threatened to take legal action over others.

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He even threatened to sue Robert Burns, head of investigations at the Insolvency Service, for claiming that he could potentially have faced a two-year jail sentence for his involvement in a company, Re-tex Plastic Technology, while disqualified.

However, in November, Mr Whyte did admit to the stock exchange that he had been disqualified as a director of a company – Vital UK Limited – in 2000 for a period of seven years.

That led to the Scottish Football Association looking into whether he remained eligible to be a club director. His period of disqualification expired four years ago, less than the five-year requirement set down in the SFA’s laws.

However, Rangers contended that he should be assessed on the actual date of disqualification, which was 11 years ago.

It insisted Mr Whyte is fully compliant with the SFA’s criteria to be an office bearer.

Mr Whyte has also had to deny using supporters’ money to fund his takeover.

Although he only paid a nominal £1 fee, Mr Whyte immediately deposited £10 million into Rangers’ current account as working capital, when he took over the club in May.

He said: “Rangers, like many other clubs, has a financing arrangement in place with a company called Ticketus which enables the club to receive revenue from a portion of season ticket sales in advance.

“There is nothing unusual or untoward in this arrangement.”