POLICE Scotland paid up to £150,000 in compensation to two accountants over the Rangers prosecution debacle.
Iain Livingstone, chief constable of Police Scotland, told MSPs this morning that administrators Paul Clark and David Whitehouse had been awarded up to £75,000 each, as well as payment for their legal costs by the force.
The two men were administrators at accountancy firm Duff & Phelps, which was handling the sale of the club. The police cash is on top of £21m compensation they also received, which was confirmed by the Lord Advocate this week.
Mr Livingstone, asked by SNP MSP Alex Neil about the costs associated with the case, explained: “You heard from he police authority that I never asked the authority for any authority for extrajudicial settlement that I agree with Mr Clark and Mr Whitehouse's representatives. And the reason for that was because that was within the limits of my delegated authority, in terms of litigation, and my delegated authority is to the limit of £75,000.
"I was able to settle with Mr Clark and Mr Whitehouse, in regard to their specific claims against policing.
“There was a commensurate contribution towards legal expenses as you would imagine as well. I'm not allowed to share more detail than that.”
READ MORE: Lord Advocate apologises for Rangers sale malicious prosecutions that cost public £24m
Graham Simpson, Conservative MSP, later asked the chief Constable if the £150,000 compensation was the only funds that were going to be paid out from the force to the two accountants involved in the rangers case.
He said: “Is that is that the total or are you expecting any more to be paid out from Police Scotland?”
The Chief Constable replied: "As was outlined by the Lord Advocate yesterday, there are still a number of litigations going through in regards to the situation regarding Rangers Football Club.
“There are a number of civil actions that individuals are pursuing and a number of civil actions that individuals are defending...Police Scotland are still party to a number of those actions and I'll be very candid, it is a very complex area, and a very complex set of circumstances and a very unfortunate set of circumstances for the individuals involved and undoubtedly for the level of public confidence in the justice system...
“In regards to those two individuals, Mr Clark and Mr Whitehouse, I was able to engage and to make reparation in regard to both Mr Clark and Mr Whitehouse within the limits of my authority.
“That's why I never had to go to the Scottish police authority, because I'm allowed to settle issues if I think it's legitimate to do so and I did do in this case, and that was within my limit which is £75000 in respect of each individual.”
Mr Neil had asked the interim chairman of the Scottish Police Authority(SPA), David Crichton, if the “ineptitude of the Crown Office” had “cost Police Scotland heavily”, in terms of instructing the force to investigate high profile cases such as the Rangers debacle and the case against former First Minister Alex Salmond without successful prosecutions.
Mr Neil said: “Has the board not been asking questions?
“I would have thought in terms of its scrutiny function, and given the adverse publicity surrounding this whole matter, that the board would be overseeing and asking questions about the cost of this investigation, because, well the emphasis at the moment has been on the compensation.
“The fact that we've ended up where we have done means all that money spent on the investigation may have been spent on better things had the Crown Office not insisted that Police Scotland investigate this.”
Mr Crichton said the SPA had been asking questions about the investigations, explaining: “We did ask the Chief Constable, in particular about the lessons that might be learned from the experience of this investigation. And I know that the Chief Constable and his colleagues will be reviewing those lessons learned and discussing them with the police authority.”
Mr Neil replied “To be fair to the Chief Constable and his officers, was his hands not tied by the fact that the Crown Office instructed this investigation?
“And so it's not just a compensation that has had a big call on public money, but the cost of the investigation, which has ended up where we've ended up, has been a huge call on Police Scotland resources as a result of the ineptitude of the Crown Office?”
Mr Crichton confirmed that the police were required to investigate issues referred to them by the crown and added: “In terms of the cost of the investigation, they will have fallen on Police Scotland, yes.”
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