LONDON (AP) Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp denied tax evasion to police by insisting he ''couldn't even fill a team sheet in.''
A tape recording of the interview was played at Redknapp's court trial where he is accused of hiding $295,000 of transfer bonuses in an offshore account.
Redknapp told officers he had not seen his pay slip in years, saying: ''You talk to anybody at the football club. I don't write. I couldn't even fill a team sheet in.''
Redknapp, who along with co-defendant Milan Mandaric denies tax evasion charges relating to their time at Portsmouth, described himself as ''utterly disorganized.''
''I am not going to fiddle taxes, I pay my accountant a fortune to look after me,'' Redknapp said in the June 2009 police interview.
''He writes all the checks for me and my wife,'' the 64-year-old manager added. ''He pays my bills. He runs my life basically.''
 |
| © AP Images |
Redknapp's bank adviser, Alan Hills, recalled in court on Thursday how Redknapp made ''disastrous'' business decisions and lost 250,000 pounds (now $392,000) trying to invest in Oxford United at an undisclosed time.
Redknapp's lawyer, John Kelsey-Fry, used the example to deny prosecution claims that Redknapp was a ''hardheaded businessman''.
Mandaric is accused of paying $145,000 into Redknapp's Monaco bank account in May 2002 - a bonus prompted by Peter Crouch's sale from Portsmouth to Aston Villa - and another $150,000 two years later.
The prosecution case is that the Redknapp and Mandaric, who is now chairman at third-tier club Sheffield Wednesday, were trying to dodge paying income tax and national insurance.
Redknapp managed Portsmouth, which is now in the second tier, from 2002-04 and returned to Fratton Park in 2005 after a brief spell at its rival Southampton before moving to Tottenham in 2008.