Redknapp shouts at officer for ‘staring’ after taking stand

There were fierce exchanges with prosecutors as the Spurs’ manager took to the stand for the first time and at one point interrupted proceedings to vent his anger at Detective Inspector Dave Manley. Turning his head across the room at Southwark Crown Court, Mr Redknapp said: “Mr Manley, will you please stop staring at me.

“I know you are trying to cause me a problem, OK.”

Mr Redknapp denied payments into his Monaco bank account by co-accused Milan Mandaric were made to evade tax and insisted: “I have always paid my taxes. I’ve always gone to the best available people... I have always paid too much tax rather than not enough.”

He said he was reluctant when Mr Mandaric suggested he opened a Monaco account at the centre of allegations that £189,000 was paid in bonuses – without tax – when Mr Redknapp was Portsmouth manager and Mr Mandaric the club’s chairman.

Mr Redknapp said he raised the Monaco dealings once with Mandaric – two years later after Portsmouth ensured Premier League survival by beating Blackburn Rovers.

“He said ‘I lost millions and millions and millions, disaster.

“But don’t worry we’ll have another go’.”

Mr Redknapp said he joked about the “investments” with Mr Mandaric, who now owns Sheffield Wednesday, with his coaching staff at Portsmouth.

He added: “It disappeared out of my head after that. It was the last time that I ever spoke to him about it.”

Mr Redknapp said that he was owed 10 per cent of the £3m profit Portsmouth made on the sale of Peter Crouch, which he “related” to a payment into the Monaco account.

“Morally I was due the bonus, although, legally I wasn’t - I always related it to that... It wasn’t my Crouch bonus as it wasn’t in my contract,” he said. Earlier, Prosecutor John Black QC alleged to Mr Mandaric that the tax dodge was “all about Mr Redknapp and he was greedy and wanted more money”.

Mr Mandaric replied: “Absolutely not true.”

Both Mr Redknapp, of Poole, in Dorset, and Mr Mandaric, 73, of Leicestershire, deny two counts of cheating the public revenue.

The trial continues.