Redknapp ‘had bungs put into Monaco account’

His former boss at Portsmouth, Milan Mandaric, now chairman of Sheffield Wednesday, was charged alongside him.

Both deny “cheating the public revenue”.

Outlining the prosecution case at Southwark Crown Court, Crown barrister John Black QC said Redknapp, now the manager of Tottenham Hotspur, flew to Monaco in 2002, shortly after becoming Portsmouth manager, to set up an account called Rosie 47, in reference to his dog and his year of birth. And shortly after that, he received his first “off the record” payment.

The first charge against both defendants alleges that between April 1 2002 and November 28 2007 Mandaric paid $145,000 (£93,100) into a bank account held by Redknapp in Monaco.

The second charge relates to $150,000 (£96,300) allegedly paid by Mandaric to the same account between May 1 2004 and November 28 2007.

Mr Black said: “The Crown’s case is that money transfers to the offshore Monaco account were deliberately and dishonestly paid by Mr Mandaric, and deliberately and dishonestly received by Mr Redknapp, with the intention of concealing them from the authorities. These payments were a bung or offshore bonus that the parties had absolutely no intention of paying taxes for.”

Explaining Redknapp’s “highly lucrative” contract with Portsmouth, Mr Black said the manager would have been entitled to a £100,000 cut of £3m profit the club made on the sale of England player Peter Crouch to Aston Villa. Altogether, he was due £500,000 in bonuses for deals made during his time as Portsmouth manager, between March 2002 and November 2004.

Between January 2004 and October 2006, Redknapp was investigated by HM Revenue & Customs who wanted to know about £300,000 he allegedly received while managing West Ham, prior to Portsmouth, as his cut of Rio Ferdinand’s record-breaking transfer between West Ham and Leeds.

But his Monaco account was not discovered until a former Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Lord Stevens, interviewed him in November 2006, as part of a broader inquiry into illegal payments in football.

Lord Stevens reported the Rosie 47 account to Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore in July 2007. And in February 2008, Redknapp closed it and had the funds to be transferred to his HSBC account in London.

Mr Black said: “What Mandaric and Redknapp said to tax authorities in the UK for a period of four and a half years from the first payment – the short answer is nothing.”

Redknapp, 64, led Portsmouth to FA Cup success and Spurs to last season’s Uefa Champions League quarter-finals.

Mr Black said he was obviously talented, popular and successful. But he was also a “hard-headed businessman”.

Redknapp’s address was given as Panorama Drive, Poole, Dorset, and 73-year-old Mandaric’s as Stretton Hall, Oadby, Leicestershire.

Mr Black said: “Harry Redknapp was, it goes without saying, no ordinary employee.

“He had the greatest capacity to influence the success or failure of his football club.

“Talented and popular he might have been; the Crown say he was nevertheless a hard-headed businessman, with a financial acumen and pecuniary sense of his influence to his employers.

“He flew to Monaco for the specific purpose of setting up a secret account.

“The Crown suggests this was intended to obscure and to render less transparent the nature of the money payments.”

Henry James Redknapp, born March 1947, is a former England player who has become the most successful English manager in the modern game. He is father to one top player, Jamie Redknapp, and uncle to another, Frank Lampard.

Milan Mandaric is a Serb who was born in what is now Croatia in September 1938. He made a fortune in manufacturing and then another one in computing after moving to the United States.

He got into football club ownership there and moved back to Europe to pursue that interest – first with Belgian club R. Charleroi S.C., then French team OGC Nice, then Portsmouth, Leicester City and Sheffield Wednesday.

The case continues today. The prosecution will continue outlining its case before the defence lawyers reply and the first witnesses are called.