Football boss on tax evasion charge

Football boss on tax evasion charge

Portsmouth Football Club chief executive Peter Storrie has been formally charged with tax evasion.

Prosecutors accused him of concealing a signing-on fee for Amdy Faye by paying it into the footballer's bank account.

Storrie will appear at City of Westminster Magistrates' Court on November 16, said a spokesman for HM Revenue and Customs Prosecution Office (RCPO).

The charge relates to the transfer of midfielder Faye from Auxerre to Portsmouth for £1.5 million in August 2003. It was alleged that Faye was paid a £250,000 signing-on fee on which tax and national insurance was not paid.

The charge alleges Storrie cheated the "public revenue" between July 1 2003, and August 12 2005. It claimed the money was paid into the account of agent Willie McKay, who has also been questioned by police.

Storrie vowed to clear his name two weeks ago when he was informed of the decision to prosecute him. He issued a statement insisting he will defend himself in the "strongest possible terms" and is confident he will be exonerated.

Mr Storrie has been on bail since being arrested in November 2007 on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud and false accounting.

The inquiry into Mr Storrie's finances was part of a wider investigation by City of London Police and HM Revenue and Customs into corruption in football known as Operation Apprentice. He was one of nine football executives questioned by police, all of whom denied any wrongdoing.

In May last year, former Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp and his wife were awarded £1,000 damages against police after judges held that officers who raided their home as part of the corruption inquiry were acting unlawfully. Their search warrant was invalid and the High Court said procedural failures by City of London Police in applying for it were "wholly unacceptable".

Meanwhile, lawyers for the former co-owner and former chief executive of Birmingham City Football Club said in August they would not be prosecuted. David Sullivan and Karren Brady were told no further action would be taken against them.