Redknapp tax evasion trial: Day 6 LIVE
Published 11:41 30/01/12 By MirrorFootball
Harry Redknapp is in court on two counts of cheating the public revenue when he was manager of Portsmouth. He is accused alongside the then Portsmouth chairman Milan Mandaric.
Both men deny the charges and a two-week trial began at Southwark Crown Court last Monday morning.
Day 6 LIVE...
4.15pm
Mandaric: "I was only asking for one thing: To trust me"
Mandaric said he often dined with Redknapp and his wife.
The two families spent several days together after celebrating a new year's eve, he said.
Mandaric said Redknapp, 64, would often pick him up and drive him around the Portsmouth area.
"Rumour around was that he was the most expensive driver in England," Mandaric told the court.
"Harry is one of those guys, I learned a lot more about him later, he is not really a small-timer in trying to nail you down about everything.
"He gives you a lot of room. I thought we strike up a relationship quite quickly from the time we met."
The chairman added: "Overall he was a special guy in my view."
Mandaric said "my ambitions were limited" when he first took control of Portsmouth.
"I was only asking for one thing: To trust me," he said. "I will support the club as much as is needed. I will stay there until there is success."
He added: "My ambition first and foremost was to put the club back on track and save it from financial ruin."
He said he cherished his time at the south coast club.
"If I look back at my 12 years there was a real love affair with football in that city," he said.
3.31pm
MANDARIC: APPLE HELPED MAKE ME RICH
The football chairman accused of sending bungs to Harry Redknapp told a court today how Apple co-founder Steve Jobs helped make him rich.
Milan Mandaric told jurors he became a billionaire in computing after a poverty-stricken childhood.
The Croatia-born Serb said Jobs handed him one of his first contracts after he emigrated to the US and opened factories manufacturing circuit boards.
Mandaric, 73, told Southwark Crown Court that he moved with his family to California after a troubled upbringing.
"It was a very difficult time in those days," he told jurors.
"For four years we were in mountains hiding from enemies while my father was taken to a concentration camp.
"When we returned, our village, it was destroyed. It was difficult days, difficult for everyone living in that part of the world."
Mandaric made a deal with Apple computing pioneer Jobs as his company - called Lika after his hometown - rapidly expanded during the 1970s.
As he took to the stand, Mandaric said: "I was quite successful.
"Somebody asks me the reason for my success - I say, 'I was in the right place at the right time'.
"Silicon Valley was just getting started and I was a part of that."
After building seven factories in Los Angeles, he sold the company to Tandy in 1980.
"It was quite a good deal for me and other shareholders," Mandaric said. "It put quite a smile on my face."
Mandaric told the court he became interested in owning football clubs as the sport began to expand in America.
He was involved in deals to bring football stars including Bobby Moore, George Best and Pele to the new US league, he said.
It was during this time that Mandaric became aware of Redknapp as a manager, he told the court.
Mandaric said: "In 35 years in football, I never had a closer relationship as a manager than I had with Harry."
When first questioned about his relationship with Redknapp by counsel Lord Macdonald QC, Mandaric joked: "When I tried to strangle him or when I love him?"
Redknapp joined Portsmouth - initially as a director of football - in 2001.
Mandaric said he asked Redknapp to take on managerial responsibilities as they became close.
When asked about Portsmouth's promotion to the Premier League, Mandaric said: "It was a dream for me, it was a goal that I desperately wanted to achieve for those wonderful people in the city."
Asked about payments sent to the Monaco account, he added: "I want to do something special for Harry because he means more to me than a football manager. This was something as a friend."
The £189,000 payments were "something entirely different", he added.
"If this was something to do with employment, I would have done something entirely different," Mandaric said.
"This is entirely my voluntary thanks without contract. Something special for my friend from football into friendship territory. That's all I wanted to do."
He added: "I want to make it absolutely clear that it was completely away from his duties, his bonuses, his salaries... It has nothing to do with it. It is an entirely different subject."
Both Redknapp, of Poole, Dorset, and Mandaric, from Oadby, Leicestershire, deny two counts of cheating the public revenue when Redknapp was manager of Portsmouth Football Club.
The first charge of cheating the public revenue alleges that between April 1 2002 and November 28 2007 Mandaric paid 145,000 US dollars (£93,100) into the account.
The second charge for the same offence relates to a sum of 150,000 US dollars (£96,300) allegedly paid between May 1 2004 and November 28 2007.
11.00am preview
DEFENCE CASE TO OPEN TODAY
Barristers defending bung allegations against Harry Redknapp and Milan Mandaric are today expected to open their cases.
Prosecutor John Black QC will give final submissions before the jury hear from Mandaric's brief, Lord Ken Macdonald QC.
Evidence will resume after Redknapp told police his home was at risk after he lost millions of pounds in disastrous investments.
The Tottenham Hotspur boss has also denied tax dodging by telling officers: "I write like a two-year-old and I can't spell."
It has yet to be confirmed whether former Portsmouth chairman Mandaric, 73, or Redknapp, 64, will give evidence in the coming days.
The jury has heard how Redknapp urged detectives to ask his solicitor if he had "ever come across anyone as bad, businesswise".
He said he lost £6 million in a property venture in Southsea, Hampshire, and had squandered £250,000 to help his friend Jim Smith keep his managerial job at Oxford United.
Redknapp - tipped as a future England boss - also said he had paid £1 million in tax in 2008, before adding: "We are givers not takers."
Both Redknapp, of Poole, Dorset, and Mandaric, from Oadby, Leicestershire, deny two counts of cheating the public revenue when Redknapp was manager of Portsmouth Football Club.
Prosecutors say Redknapp dodged tax by receiving £189,000 in transfer bonuses in a Monaco account in the name of his dog, Rosie.
One of the payments during his time at Portsmouth was over the £3 million profit the club made on the sale of England star Peter Crouch, the jury has been told.
The first charge of cheating the public revenue alleges that between April 1 2002 and November 28 2007 Mandaric paid 145,000 US dollars (£93,100) into the account.
The second charge for the same offence relates to a sum of 150,000 US dollars (£96,300) allegedly paid between May 1 2004 and November 28 2007.
This page will be updated throughout the day as more details emerge.
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