MR DAVID HOLMES told a court yesterday that, while chairman of Falkirk
Football Club, he had not sanctioned payments by the club benefiting Mr
Hamish Deans, his successor.
Falkirk Sheriff Court had been told that a bill of #511 for the
repairs to a house owned by Mr Deans had been settled by a cheque from
the club, and that various other payments had been made.
Mr Holmes, a former chairman of Rangers, was giving evidence on the
first day of the trial of Mr Deans and his son, George. They face
charges of fraud and embezzlement.
He said that at the time the bill had been paid Mr Hamish Deans had no
connection with Falkirk FC. He had taken over after Mr Holmes's
departure in August 1991. Mr George Deans had been club secretary at the
time.
Ms Petra Collins, depute fiscal, said that, apart from the bill for
the repairs, the club had paid for a lease on the house to a Hamish
Deans company, a #909 bill for photographs ordered by Hamish and a #970
car phone for George.
She asked Mr Holmes if the payments had ever been sanctioned by the
board.
He said: ''No.''
He added that he would not have authorised them.
Mr Hamish Deans, 55, a butcher, of Bannerfield House, Selkirk, and Mr
George Deans, 27, of Market Place, Lauder, are accused of embezzling
#5794.
Mr George Deans is accused that, while acting as a director of Falkirk
FC, he embezzled #2719.
They are also accused of obtaining Access cards by fraud from the
Clydesdale Bank.
Mr Hamish Deans is alleged to have defrauded Falkirk FC by using an
Access card to buy flights to and from London and Edinburgh, and of
defrauding the Meat and Livestock Commission, of Milton Keynes, by
claiming expenses for flight tickets worth #206.
They deny all charges.
Earlier, Mr William Nesbitt, 45, the joiner who carried out the
repairs on the house owned by Mr Hamish Deans, said that he had
''thought it was a wee bit strange'' when his bill had been settled by
the club.
In 1991, he had been asked by Mr Deans to carry out repairs on the
house into which his brother Paul, at that time a cashier at Falkirk FC,
was to move.
Mrs Christine Brotherston, the Deans's business secretary, agreed with
Mr Alistair Duff, defence solicitor, that several Falkirk FC employees
lived in Lauder. Apart from Hamish, George and Paul Deans, they included
Mr Jim Jeffries, the current manager, and Mr Wilson Young, a former
director.
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