FTT transcript for Andrew Dickson

It was more than just tax that was being evaded as the man who administered Rangers’ infamous EBT scheme was on the ropes while HMRC’s brief tried to hit him hard.

It is easy to make seemingly outlandish claims about the years of wrong-doing by Rangers’ management while sitting on a stack of documentation. After all this time- and so many official claims of blissful ignorance- it is only fair to let you see for yourself.

There are legal and tactical reasons for not just dumping everything for public consumption. However, ex-Rangers administrator and current TRFC Ltd Director, Andrew Dickson’s appearance before the First Tier Tribunal (Tax) on 18 April 2011 provides an opportunity for anyone with an interest in this story to get a cross-sectional view of the rot that rampaged through one of Scotland’s biggest football clubs in the first decade of this millennium. The document attached below is a verbatim copy- without editing or alteration- of the official transcript of Mr Dickson’s submission and cross-examination that day.

It provides a quite detailed description of the how the trust scheme was supposed to work in theory. It lays bare the manner in which the sloppy implementation of the scheme by Mr. Dickson and his colleagues’ created gaping holes even in their “we-think-you-are-all-stupid” strategy. Just some of the evidence of deliberate concealment is in open view.

It is interesting to see Mr. Dickson try to duck questions around player registration and the requirement to declare of all payments related to playing football. In defiance of logic, Mr. Dickson just sticks doggedly to his (presumably coached) lines of “we didn’t think we had to”.  Had he endlessly answered “because We Are The People?” for a whole day under oath it would have made as much sense.

It is quite a long read but worth the effort for anyone who wants to understand how the ailing mammoth that was Rangers ended up dying in a tar-pit of its own creation. It seems incredible to me that anyone aware of the facts would deem Mr. Dickson fit and proper for any current role in Scottish football let alone allow him to sit on SFA and SPFL committees. Mr. Dickson’s submission starts at the foot of the second page of the file.

11-mur180411 – Copy

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