Chief Constable fights ex-Rangers exec Imran Ahmad claim over wrongful Rangers fraud prosecution

Police Scotland, however, have said they are contesting any liability in the case, it has emerged.

Lord Advocate James Wolffe last week made a public apology to both men as the damages cases were due to be progressed.

Mr Green, whose Sevco consortium, bought the assets of the club business in liquidation nine years ago for £5.5m is due to receive compensation after Crown lawyers accepted he was subjected to a malicious fraud prosecution.

A full hearing in his £20m damages claim over wrongful arrest to decide how much should be awarded was due in August, but his solicitors raised concerns yesterday that it might be delayed.

READ MORE: Lord Advocate to challenge ex-Rangers CEO Charles Green's £20m claim for wrongful prosecution

Mr Ahmad is also pursuing an amount that could run to £30m, after he was wrongly prosecuted on fraud charges. Court documents state that at present it is a £2m claim.

Both men are being represented by former Advocates General for Scotland, law officers of the Crown, whose duty it is to advise the UK government on Scots law.

Lord Davidson for Mr Ahmad, was Advocate General under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown's Labour government between March, 2006 and May, 2010, while Lord Keen for Mr Green was in office between May 2015 and September, 2020 under the Tory governments of David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson.

Gerry Moynihan QC, for the Lord Advocate indicated that there were problems in a mediation with Mr Ahmad because of difficulties over a report into the the extent of the damages that the state has paid for.

He said there had been no admission of liability to Mr Ahmad by the Chief Constable.

He said Mr Ahmad was invited to vouch for his claim with a view to negotiating a settlement.

"He was unable to afford, apparently, to instruct an expert, so the Lord Advocate agreed to fund the preparation of an expert report,"he said.

The report, which is not before the court, it remains confidential, apparently, is that it raises issues of primary fact that require investigation."

Lord Davidson denied that the Lord Advocate took on the expense of the report because Mr Ahmad could not afford it.

"I don't know where he found that from, that's not the case at all," he said.

"What happened was that the Lord Advocate was asked to pay for the mediation, including the report, to which he agreed."

Mr Moyniham said said one of the issues in the cases related to the amount of damage that was done to a company both men had been involved with called Proton International. There was further information needed on damage done to a firm Mr Green had been involved with, Florida-based firm called Croton.

Lord Keen said that issues over shared information regarding the damages cases should not be a barrier to progress.

"It seems that the Lord Advocate has simply done nothing about that until now. You have to remember the events we are concerned with took place six years ago. If matters are deferred yet again Mr Green is going to be further prejudiced by the actions of the Lord Advocate, it seems wholly inappropriate.

"In the Ahmad case, the police haven't admitted liability.

"How many more years will pass before Mr Green's case is heard."

READ MORE: Ex-Rangers execs Charles Green and Imran Ahmad get public apology over wrongful prosecution

Lord Tyre, who referred Mr Green's case to the commercial court said he can "tailor things accordingly to ensure that orders are made for disclosure of information while retaining the possibility" of the case being heard as scheduled in August.

He said he would not refer Mr Ahmad's case to the commercial court, saying he wanted to encourage mediation.

"I have sympathy with the Lord Advocates position in relation to the obtaining of information. I take the point but time has passed, and particularly in this case, when the dates were set aside in August back last year in October and there did seem to be plenty of time and a lot of time has gone past, and I'm not apportioning blame for that but things have to move forward now," said Lord Tyre who refused an expenses claim from the representatives of Mr Ahmad and Mr Green.

Both men were told three years ago they would face no further proceedings in connection with the case as prosecutors said there is "now no evidence of a crime".

The decision by the Crown Office had marked the end of the two-and-a-half-year long proceedings which saw only Craig Whyte face trial and led to no convictions.

The Lord Advocate in a public apology said: "Between 2015 and 2016 Mr Imran Ahmad and Mr Charles Green were prosecuted in the High Court concerning matters associated with Rangers Football Club.

"They should not have been prosecuted and, as Lord Advocate and head of the system for the prosecution of crime in Scotland, I have apologised unreservedly that they were.

"I made a statement to the Scottish Parliament following the settlement of two related cases, and I said at that time that there had been profound departures from normal practice.

"Lessons have been learned from what happened and the Crown Office & Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) has taken steps to prevent a similar situation arising in the future.

"I have given a commitment that there will be a judge-led inquiry into these matters once all relevant legal cases have concluded.

"The actions by Mr Ahmad and Mr Green continue with a view to settlement of their financial claims."

Mr Whyte, who ended up being the last man standing in the long-running case, was cleared in the summer of 2017 of all charges in connection with his takeover of seven years ago.

But the Crown Office had consistently confirmed up till the end of 2017 that matters regarding Mr Green and Mr Ahmad remained under consideration and "enquiries are continuing" in the wake of Mr Whyte's acquittal.

That is despite the fact that the time limit on fresh charges under 65(1)(b) of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 expired in September, 2016 and legal experts had said it would be very difficult to bring new charges arising from the two buyouts because of the time bar.

The original 15 charges in the Rangers case had covered fraud and conspiracy surrounding Mr Whyte's purchase of Rangers from Sir David Murray for a pound in 2011 and the buying of the club's liquidated assets for £5.5 million by the Sevco consortium four months after the business fell into administration in February, 2012.

In June, 2016, it emerged that there were to be no further proceedings against David Whitehouse, David Grier and Paul Clark, who worked for Rangers administrators Duff and Phelps and former club secretary Gary Withey, who worked for Whyte's London law firm, Collyer Bristow and advised Mr Whyte during his takeover.

It was confirmed in February, 2018, that allegations against Mr Green and Mr Ahmad had been dropped, although Crown counsel said they were considering the position in relation to Green and later it emerged it was to both.

Among the dropped charges was an allegation that Mr Green appropriated for his own use and purposes the sum of £5.5 million which he had obtained by fraud and that he purchased the "business and assets of the club through its corporate entity Sevco Scotland Limited with money provided by investors to Sevco 5088 Limited without their knowledge and agreement."

Also dropped were allegations of fraud and a conspiracy to commit serious organised crime over the Sevco purchase of the club's assets for a sum below its true market value depriving the creditors of rightful sums due to them.

Mr Whitehouse and Mr Clark had faced a number of dropped allegations including conspiring with Mr Whyte, Mr Green and Mr Ahmad to defraud the club's creditors of funds and assets.

It was also alleged in that dropped charge that the pair allowed Mr Whyte, Mr Green and Mr Ahmad to acquire the club at "significantly below the true market value".

The dropped charge claimed Mr Ahmad paid Mr Clark and Mr Whitehouse an exclusivity fee of £200,000 as the joint administrators of so-called oldco Rangers.