Redknapp judge to sum up evidence

Jurors at the Harry Redknapp tax evasion trial are today expected to start considering their verdicts.

Judge Anthony Leonard will sum up evidence before the panel of eight men and four women retires.

The jury has heard both the Tottenham Hotspur manager and his co-defendant Milan Mandaric deny tax dodge claims over the past two weeks.

The Crown says deposits totalling £189,000 in a Monaco account were bonuses related to Portsmouth Football Club.

At least one of the payments was related to the £3million profit the club made on the sale of England striker Peter Crouch to Aston Villa, Southwark Crown Court heard.

Jurors were warned by the prosecution to “keep their eyes on the ball” when they consider their verdicts.

But Redknapp’s barrister, John Kelsey-Fry QC, said yesterday that some of the Crown’s evidence is “repugnant to all our basic instincts of fairness”.

Mandaric’s QC Lord Macdonald said the prosecution was “really flailing” with “paper-thin” explanations for the Monaco payments.

“We say the evidence against him is hopelessly weak,” he said.

Both Redknapp, 64, of Poole, Dorset, and Mandaric, 73, from Oadby, Leicestershire, deny two counts of cheating the public revenue when Redknapp was manager of Portsmouth Football Club.

The first charge of cheating the public revenue alleges that between April 1 2002 and November 28 2007 Mandaric paid 145,000 US dollars (£93,100) into the account.

The second charge for the same offence relates to a sum of 150,000 US dollars (£96,300) allegedly paid between May 1 2004 and November 28 2007.