Whyte to sue police and Crown for £10m
FORMER Rangers owner Craig Whyte is set to sue police and prosecutors for £10million over ‘wrongful arrest’.
The businessman, 51, was arrested over an alleged fraudulent buyout of the Ibrox club in 2015 but was cleared in court two years later.
Mr Whyte was said to have been ‘biding his time’ after another former Rangers executive, Charles Green, was awarded £6.4million, while former Rangers administrators Paul Clark and David Whitehouse received a combined £21million.
The Crown Office admitted the pair were wrongfully targeted in a ‘malicious prosecution’. Mr Whyte is now seeking damages from the Crown Office and Police Scotland.
A legal source told the Scottish Sun: ‘His team has always said Police Scotland and the Crown had nothing on him and like the others he should never have been arrested. The only difference is Mr Whyte went to trial where he was cleared.’
A source close to Mr Whyte last night told the Mail the damages claims were under way. Mr Whyte was cleared in 2017 over two charges relating to his Ibrox takeover.
Mr Whitehouse and Mr Clark, both 56, were appointed administrators when the company that ran Rangers hit a financial crisis in 2012. They were arrested in 2014, with charges later dropped.
In 2020, prosecutors admitted they were malicious prosecutions, and both men were each awarded £10.5million. The then Lord Advocate James Wolffe, QC, apologised to the two men in the Scottish parliament.
Their colleague David Grier lost a similar £8.7million claim in January and is appealing the decision.
Ex-Ibrox chief executive Mr Green, 69, won damages after a claim against the former Lord Advocate. He was arrested in 2015 and charged with fraud over his buyout of the club. The case against him and four others, including Rangers commercial boss Imran Ahmad, was abandoned.
Last year, outgoing Lord Advocate Mr Wolffe told the Scottish parliament Mr Ahmad and Mr Green ‘shouldn’t have been prosecuted’. Mr Ahmad is suing for £60million.
The legal fallout from failed police investigations into alleged Rangers fraud is set to cost taxpayers up to £100million. A Crown Office spokesman said: ‘Proceedings are ongoing and it would not be appropriate to comment in detail at this time.’