Football boss Harry Redknapp threatened to “sue the bollocks” off a journalist as he angrily denied taking bungs, a court has heard.
Spurs manager Redknapp and former Portsmouth FC chairman Milan Mandaric are on trial at Southwark Crown Court accused of tax evasion.
The court has previously heard how Redknapp failed to declare his offshore bank account for six years after “feigning” ignorance during a high profile inquiry into football bungs
He had allegedly flown out to Monaco just a couple of years earlier to set it up in the name of his dog, Rosie.
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Today the court heard how Redknapp said Milan Mandaric “don’t know what he is fucking talking about” in a 2009 telephone conversation with a News of the World reporter.
In short extracts read out to a jury at Southwark Crown Court, Redknapp told Rob Beasley he had “the best accountants in England”, claiming the Inland Revenue was fully aware of his dealings in Monaco.
Beasley spoke to Redknapp days after a telephone interview with former Portsmouth chairman Mandaric.
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When Beasley described how Mandaric said the money sent to Redknapp’s offshore accounts were investments outside football, the Tottenham manager replied: “He don’t know what he is fucking talking about. What is he talking about? It is a bonus.”
Explaining that the payments surrounded profit made on the sale of Peter Crouch from Portsmouth to Aston Villa, Redknapp added: “If it was something dodgy I would have gone over there and brought it back in a briefcase.”
When Beasley asked him whether he had paid any tax in the UK on it, Redknapp replied: “Haven’t been asked to, Rob.”
Redknapp said “there ain’t nothing crooked in it” as the telephone conversation went on, the court heard.
‘Nothing to do with a bung’
“Don’t say bung,” Redknapp said. “It’s nothing to do with a bung. It’s paid by the chairman.
“How can it be a bung when the chairman of the football club paid me?”
He added: “What’s a bung? It’s a fucking sick word.”
According to the transcript, he told Mandaric: “I don’t want to have a problem with the tax man.”
“They was aware of it from day one,” he added.
When asked about the bonus clause in his contract, Redknapp said: “My accountant has got my contract … I’m not going to fucking show you.”
He added: “The Inland Revenue know all about it. I’ve got nothing to defend, Rob.
“I ain’t done nothing wrong … I ain’t done nothing wrong, Rob. I got paid a bonus … everyone is aware of it.”
He later added: “Everyone knows about it, there ain’t nothing crooked in it.”
Redknapp subsequently told police “I don’t fiddle”, the court heard.
‘I pay every penny’
John Black QC, prosecuting, read out an interview which took place with a detective four months later in June.
Redknapp was said to have told a detective: “I said to him many, many times ‘Milan, I don’t want to end up with a tax bill’.
“I was told I wasn’t liable for income tax on so many occasions.”
Redknapp added: “For the sake of that amount of money or any amount of money, I don’t fiddle.
“I pay my tax since I have been in football my entire life. I pay every penny.”
Redknapp’s account differed from what Mandaric told Beasley on February 26 2009, the Crown claim.
Mandaric was said to have told Beasley that the payments to the Monaco account were nothing to do with Portsmouth securing promotion to the Premier League.
The transcript said: “This is the money for my investment… a way to help Harry for the investment… we had become friends.”
He added: “Rob, as I told you, it was nothing wrong. It was something I did for my friend… away from football.”
Mandaric said he had “paid him a million or whatever it was I paid him” for Portsmouth’s success on the pitch.
He added: “There was a contract and what I did for him was nothing to do with this.”
As Beasley told Redknapp what Mandaric had said, the manager said: “Well, if that’s what he said, then he is wrong.”
Redknapp added: “What people don’t seem to understand – this money was paid by Milan in his American account… It was a bonus I was due.”
Redknapp declared his Monaco account to inspectors less than two weeks before joining Spurs, the prosecution allege.
Both Redknapp and Mandaric deny two counts of cheating the public revenue when he was Portsmouth manager.
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