Redknapp charged with tax evasion
Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp has been accused of a £40,000 tax evasion.
The 62-year-old Londoner voluntarily attended Bishopsgate police station in the capital to be charged by police, his solicitor said. The move comes at the end of an exhaustive 26-month police and tax inquiry into alleged corruption in English football.
A Crown Prosecution Service spokesman said: "Henry (Harry) Redknapp, the former football manager of Portsmouth City (sic) Football Club, has today been charged with two counts of cheating the public revenue."
Ian Burton, Redknapp's solicitor, said: "Harry has co-operated fully with investigators during the course of this inquiry and is confident of a successful outcome to these court proceedings."
The CPS statement added: "The CPS Revenue and Customs Division decided there was sufficient evidence and it was in the public interest to charge Mr Redknapp. He is jointly charged with Milan Mandaric, the former chairman of Portsmouth City Football Club, following an investigation by the City of London Police and HM Revenue & Customs."
The charges concern two payments, totalling 295,000 US dollars (£183,000), from Mr Mandaric to Mr Redknapp via a bank account in Monaco, evading the tax and national insurance contributions due between April 1 2002 and November 28 2007.
The payments were in relation to Mr Redknapp's employment. He will appear at the City of Westminster Magistrates' Court on February 11.
Redknapp's arrest was part of a wider inquiry, dubbed Operation Apprentice, by City of London Police and HM Revenue and Customs into alleged football corruption. He was held in November 2007 by investigators examining a number of transfer deals at his former club Portsmouth and at Birmingham.
The decision sparked a furious response from Redknapp, who accused police of targeting him because of his high profile. Other figures who came under the police spotlight were Birmingham's former managing director Karren Brady and former co-owner David Sullivan.
Portsmouth chief executive Peter Storrie, former chairman Milan Mandaric, former player Amdy Faye and agent Willie McKay were also questioned. Mandaric, 71, now chairman of Leicester, was charged with tax evasion on Tuesday and ordered to appear in court on February 11.
