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.