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| Milan Mandaric promises to clear name in face of 'ridiculous' charges • Former Pompey chairman charged with cheating revenue• 'I am very disappointed with this totally ridiculous thing' Milan Mandaric last night described HM Revenue & Customs' decision to charge him with tax evasion as "totally ridiculous" and vowed to clear his name. The former Portsmouth chairman mounted a vigorous defence in the face of allegations that he has cheated the public revenue in relation to an offshore payment made to Harry Redknapp, who remains on bail and is expected to be formally charged with a tax offence over the coming days.Mandaric, now chairman of Leicester City, who was arrested in November 2007 along with Redknapp and Peter Storrie, the Fratton Park chief executive, as part of the long-running investigation into alleged corruption in football, maintained that the transaction in question was a "private matter". He claimed that he was helping Redknapp, Portsmouth's manager at the time, with an investment that had nothing to do with football and disputed the figures the Crown Prosecution Service released in their statement yesterday.That statement said: "Following a thorough investigation by HM Revenue and Customs and the City of London police, the CPS decided there was sufficient evidence and it was in the public interest to charge Mr Mandaric with two counts of cheating the public revenue. The charges are in relation to the payment of $295,000 [£182,000] from Mr Mandaric to another via a bank account in Monaco, evading the tax and national insurance contributions due between 1 April 2002 and 28 November 2007.""I must say that I am very disappointed with this totally ridiculous thing," said the 71-year-old Mandaric. "The statement is wrong, like everything else has been wrong. I have been transparent in everything I have done. Nothing was done wrong on Harry's or my side. It was a private matter where I invested money up front, all outside of this country, outside of football." He added: "The numbers are wrong."Mandaric said the figure was closer to "$50,000 which is taxable, which is around £25,000, and 40% of that is £10,000. That is what we're talking about. The cost and expense [of the investigation, which started in April 2007] and all this aggravation and unfairness is far more than £10,000 that someone will have to pay. There is no correlation between the two. I just hope that one of these days someone will wake up and say 'What the hell is going in here?' And I know that will happen because there is no wrongdoing here."Mandaric will appear at City of Westminster magistrates court on 11 February, following in the footsteps of Storrie, who has also been charged with cheating the public revenue and is due to appear at Southwark crown court a week today for a plea and case management hearing. Redknapp learned last month that he would face charges, which are expected before the end of the week.There had been suggestions that the payment Redknapp received through the account in Monaco was in relation to an outstanding bonus due to him when he was Portsmouth manager but Mandaric strongly denied that was the case. "We paid him over a million pounds in bonuses [at Portsmouth], everything according to contract," he said. "What is the benefit to anyone for me to pay him [via an offshore account]?"Mandaric added that he has paid millions of pounds to the Inland Revenue during his time as chairman at Portsmouth and now Leicester and remains deeply upset that he has been charged. "It is unfortunate that I have to go through this but I have no other choice now other than to vigorously defend and clear my name," he said. "This is a case of misinformation to the public and it's a mistake whoever has come up with this decision."PortsmouthCrimeLeicester CityHarry RedknappPremier LeagueStuart Jamesguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Police hunt for missing prisoner A man convicted of assault, robbery and firearms offences absconds from Castle Huntly Prison near Dundee. news.bbc.co.uk |
Surprise fall in UK unemployment • Claimant count drops 15,200 to 1.61 million• Government claims success in 'helping people through the recession'• Bank of England voted 9-0 to hold rates and QEA rapid growth in part-time jobs may prevent the jobless total rising above the 3 million mark after unemployment unexpectedly fell for the first time in 18 months in November.The Office for National Statistics said the broadest measure of unemployment fell by 7,000 to 2.458 million, the first quarterly decline since May 2008, leaving the jobless rate at 7.8%. The narrower measure of people claiming unemployment benefits dropped by more than expected in December, falling by 15,200 to 1.61 million, the biggest drop since early 2007.But the fall masked an increase in the number of people in the labour force who are neither working nor looking for work, with the inactivity total rising above 8 million for the first time since records began in 1971. The rise was largely driven by an increase of 81,000 in the number of students not looking for work.Full-time employment fell by 113,000 to 21.2 million, while part-time employment did not rise fast enough to compensate, increasing by 99,000 to 7.7 million. As has been the pattern for months, the figures are being driven by women finding part-time jobs while men, predominantly, are losing full-time ones.There was better news for the under-24s, who saw a fall in joblessness of 16,000 to 927,000, but that still left a fifth of young people out of work.Other figures showed the number of people out of work for more than a year jumped 29,000 on the quarter to 631,000, the highest level since late 1997, as companies continue to shed jobs in the teeth of the UK's worst recession since 1921. Today the power company E.ON announced the closure of a call centre in Essex with the loss of 600 jobs, while last week Bosch said it was closing its car parts factory near Cardiff, losing 900 workers.Unemployment continues to hit regions of Britain differently. The jobless rate rose again in the north-east, to 9.8%, closely followed by the West Midlands on 9.6%. By contrast, the east and south-east had the lowest rates of any region, at 6.3% and 6.2% respectively.The ONS also reported that wage growth slowed to the lowest on record at just 1.1% year-on-year, excluding volatile bonus payments in the three months to November. For November alone, private sector pay showed no growth at all from a year earlier.Colin Ellis, economist at Daiwa Capital Markets, was concerned that wage growth had slackened and that it could affect consumer spending this year. "The rise in unemployment during this recession has undoubtedly been smaller than expected, which should support consumer spending. But the flipside of a smaller-than-expected adjustment in labour market quantities has been greater adjustment in terms of prices, with earnings growth weakening markedly."John Wright, chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses, warned that many of the jobs created in the run-up to Christmas might not last long. "Many small firms, especially in the retail sector, will have taken on seasonal staff to help them through the busy Christmas period. However, small businesses need help to make these seasonal jobs into permanent jobs and the government must lend a helping hand if small firms are to really tackle the challenge of rising unemployment," Wright said.Separately, minutes of the latest meeting of the Bank of England's monetary policy committee showed all nine members voted in January to keep interest rates at a record low of 0.5% and to maintain its £200bn quantitative easing scheme.The MPC said signals were mixed but the economy appeared to be growing again, albeit weakly. It said large policy stimuli and a weaker sterling exchange rate were still the main supports for growth but noted powerful headwinds remained, as Bank governor Mervyn King had said in a speech on TuesdayUnemployment and employment statisticsRecessionGreen shootsEconomicsAshley Seagerguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Police hunt for hospital patient Two patients missing from a psychiatric hospital are being looked for by police who say the public should not approach them. news.bbc.co.uk |
Arrests made in bomb officer case Two men are arrested in connection with the attempted murder of Constable Peadar Heffron earlier this month. news.bbc.co.uk |