Sandy Easdale Calls For Stability !!!

[ian1964 10,413]

THE bus tycoon set to become Rangers’ biggest shareholder joked he would be the target of an international manhunt IF lurid crime claims about him were true.

Sandy Easdale insisted he has turned over a new leaf since serving time in jail for fraud.

 

In a frank interview with The Scottish Sun, the hard-nosed businessman yesterday pledged HE will buy MORE shares in the Ibrox club;

 

HE will “trounce” rivals in the battle for the Light Blues;

 

HE will help the cash-strapped outfit become profitable.

 

But it was the long-standing rumours linking him to the criminal underworld that he was most eager to squash.

 

Easdale, who served one year of a 27-month sentence for VAT fraud, said he hoped to convince Gers supporters that the talk about him was “trash”.

 

He went on: “I have not been involved in crime for 16 years, since I was jailed.

 

“If I was involved in all the things I’m rumoured to be involved in, I would be on some sort of Interpol list.”

 

Easdale said he thought the crime claims had stuck because of the cash-heavy trades his family has been involved in over the years — which are often associated with hoods.

 

He said: “If you’ve got taxis in the west of Scotland, you get associated with gangsterism, for some reason. We also had pubs, and have scrapyards, and the same goes for them.

 

“Every time you see a film they are cutting someone up in a scrapyard. So maybe that’s why.”

 

He added: “I don’t think every fan is going to use my past against me but it is an easy weapon for some.

 

“If you want to besmirch somebody, you just say, ‘Look at his past’. But it wasn’t anything to do with gangsterism I went to prison for, it was non-payment of VAT.

 

“If you look round Scotland, there’s been lots of people who have been done for the same. They don’t seem to get the gangster stigma attached to them.”

 

Last week boss Easdale bought £498,744 of Rangers shares, on top of the £1m stake his family have bought since December.

 

He confirmed he has an agreement to buy the bulk of the stake held by Charles Green, currently the biggest shareholder.

 

Easdale is fighting to help the current Ibrox regime cling on to power. It includes his brother James, chief exec Craig Mather, and finance boss Brian Stockbridge. There has been talk of a coup bid by Scotland’s richest man, Clyde Blowers boss Jim McColl, and ex-director Paul Murray. But Easdale said: “I know the level of support we have and it outweighs them by double.

 

“So they are going to get trounced — it’s going to be a bit embarrassing.”

 

Easdale added he was “confused” why McColl — who is said to have just a handful of Rangers shares — had publicly ruled out upping his stake in Rangers.

 

He said: “At the moment Jim McColl says he’s not willing to put a penny into the club. He is obviously a lot wealthier than most so why is he not willing to put any money into the club?

 

“What I spent on shares this week would be a drop in the ocean for a billionaire — a few days’ interest, probably.”

 

The brothers’ primary business interest is McGill’s buses — the Greenock-based firm which they built up from 33 buses to 450 in the past decade. It now employs around 800 people while their other businesses — scrapyards, window and glass makers, and taxi firms including Inverclyde Taxis — have some 200 more staff. Easdale said his businesses have been probed and cleared by watchdogs like the Traffic Commissioner and Office of Fair Trading.

 

He and brother James are life-long fans of both Rangers and Greenock Morton.

 

And Easdale is now hoping to use more of his fortune to invest in Rangers, which he believes will become profitable. He claimed he had made NO duff business decisions since leaving jail and said ploughing cash into Rangers would not be the first mistake.

 

He added: “You are not going to invest in Rangers to make money right away. I see the sense in doing it for the long term.

 

“But you do get Rangers-itis. Once you catch the Rangers bug it draws you in.” Easdale was jailed in 1997 at Croydon Crown Court after customs investigators uncovered a UK-wide VAT scam.

 

Stolen computer parts were discovered at his Greenock scrapyard and £45,000 was found in a carrier bag behind his settee.

 

He served the first few months at High Down prison in London before being moved to Ford open nick in West Sussex.

 

One of his prison pals was insurance fraudster toff Lord Brocket who was jailed in 1996 for breaking up and burying luxury sports cars before claiming they had been stolen in a bid to clear his debts. Easdale said: “Brocket was across the landing from me. There were a lot of very educated, high-profile businessmen in there — old Etonians, people with honours.”

 

He said his jail time made him swear that he would not get involved in crime again.

 

And he went on: “It shocks you. Most of my time was done in Ford open nick where most of the celebrity prisoners get locked up. It’s where George Best did time for drink-driving.

 

“It wasn’t like Porridge and Ronnie Barker or anything. It wasn’t the best and it wasn’t the worst.

 

“I think being away from your family is worse than anything, and obviously it was down south, which is a long way from home.

 

“I think it changed me — I said I would never be in trouble again.

 

“It’s better to work hard and build your own business than to languish in a jail cell. That is the best principle I learned.”

 

chris.musson@the-sun.co.uk

[foggy dewhurst 0]

All this directors taking a percentage of deals has to stop bleeding much needed money from the club that we cant afford to lose and I an old enough to remember the team on the other side of the city before the bunnet saved them the board members took a percentage of every player sold and look at how they ended up .

[Calgacus 8]

He went to prison for rather more than non payment of VAT - it was a deliberate fraud on HMRC using stolen computer parts.

[amms 0]

Well I for one feel much more relaxed about Easdale now that The Sun via Jack Irvine has said he's not a gangster. That's the kind of reassurance I've been waiting for. Nothing to see here, move along.

[andy steel 0]

He said: “At the moment Jim McColl says he’s not willing to put a penny into the club. He is obviously a lot wealthier than most so why is he not willing to put any money into the club?

 

Because, like most people, he wouldn't trust you or the rest of the Keystone Kops with a penny.

[Frankie 8,150]

The Easdales arguably deserve the benefit of the doubt just like anyone else interested in the club's well being.

 

Unfortunately, working with Jack Irvine/MH and BBC Scotland suggests their judgement isn't great given the club's opinion on both of these parties.

 

However, they've put their money where their mouth is so we'll see what they bring to the table going forward. It's a pity they didn't highlight that instead of slagging off other concerned people but I guess that's their prerogative.

[MeAndMyWeePalJoe 12]

If you want to besmirch somebody, you just say, ‘Look at his past’. But it wasn’t anything to do with gangsterism I went to prison for, it was non-payment of VAT.

 

Al Capone could have said the same thing...

 

I don't know anything about these people other than what I have read and on that basis I'm not terribly comfortable with their involvement...

[Calgacus 8]

Talking about McColl not having put any money in is a smokescreen. They are focusing on an individual and trying to ignore the fact that somewhere near a third of investors are unhappy at the way the Company is being run. That cannot be good for the long term stability the Company.

[simplythebest 0]

Because, like most people, he wouldn't trust you or the rest of the Keystone Kops with a penny.

 

Always an excuse for the 'Rangers men' isn't there?

[der Berliner 3,245]

He said: “At the moment Jim McColl says he’s not willing to put a penny into the club. He is obviously a lot wealthier than most so why is he not willing to put any money into the club?

 

A simple question and a simple, already given answer. McColl is not willing to pay Green and Co. for their shares, he wants - if anything - invest into the club itself, hence a new share issue.

 

Sidenote: Are the Easdales involved in Greenock Morton too? If so, would there be a conflict of interest should both play in the same league?