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Court humiliation for Ex-Rangers owner Craig Whyte..........................


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............................as judge makes him read out letter slating his own character

 

TYCOON made to read out damning letter slamming treatment of family and claiming he faced jail for illegal activity.

 

 

 

FORMER Rangers owner Craig Whyte was yesterday forced to read out a letter in court slating his own character.

 

The damning letter laid bare the tycoon’s troubled time at Ibrox, slammed his treatment of his family and claimed he faced jail for illegal activity.

 

It was revealed as he gave evidence at the Inverness Sheriff Court trial of two former employees accused of stealing from him.

 

The letter was allegedly written by his former housekeeper and cook Jane Hagan last year, weeks before Whyte sacked her and her caretaker partner Terence Horan.

 

Monaco-based Whyte claimed he found it beside a computer in his Highland home, Castle Grant, after he returned there and found the couple gone and various items missing.

 

It contained claims of terror threats, alongside allegations that Whyte had bankrupted his own father three times and treated his wife “in an appalling way”.

 

It also disclosed that the bank were poised to repossess his Highland home at Castle Grant and said he could have been facing jail for his “illegal activities”.

 

The letter, running to three A4 pages, was allegedly written by Hagan to a friend, Sue.

 

Hagan, 50, and Horan, 54, deny stealing thousands of pounds worth of goods from the castle, near Grantown on Spey.

 

In an uncomfortable few minutes, 42-year-old Whyte was forced to read out the letter in its entirety in court by prosecutor Heather Swan.

 

It contained what appeared to be a confession by Hagan that the couple were taking items from the castle because they had not been paid and feared for their future.

 

The trial was in its second day yesterday after being interrupted last month due to a lack of court time.

 

Sheriff Jamie Gilchrist heard that a container had been rented by Horan and filled with a huge array of household items.

 

Whyte, who had separated from his wife Kim three years earlier, said he noticed last year that some items were missing from the castle, including a huge kitchen table.

 

When Whyte returned from a holiday with his two children, he said his housekeeper and caretaker were nowhere to be seen and he had to get a locksmith to get into the house.

 

He discovered more things missing and, on checking with Kim, discovered she had not taken them.

 

The court heard a search warrant was obtained by police and many of the items missing from the castle were found in a storage container in Grantown on Spey among others belonging to Hagan and Horan.

 

Whyte told the court: “I was with the police and pointed out some things which belonged to either myself or my wife. I did not order their removal, nor did I instruct anyone to store them or hide them.”

 

He also denied tampering with the letter. “I didn’t doctor it, edit or make changes to it. It is exactly the way it was handed to me,” he added.

 

Whyte then moved from the witness box to the dock to answer a possible contempt of court for failing to appear for the trial when it was due to start on June 10.

 

His lawyer Paul Kavanagh said it had been a genuine mistake.

 

Sheriff Gilchrist decided to take no further action and made no finding of contempt.

 

But he warned Whyte that he had to attend court to finish his evidence when the trial resumes on October 23.

The letter in full:

 

“Our boss has been behaving rather badly. We have always known he is not the nicest person in business and his living is mostly made by dubious means.

 

Talking to his wife not only confirms our suspicions that he is not a good man but we find he has treated her and her family in the most appalling way.

 

He has bankrupted his own father and due to this he has lost his home, not once but three times and still he uses him to do his dirty work.

 

“When we returned from holiday she was in pieces claiming that he had told her he was doing a runner and never coming back to the castle.

 

“It is rather distressing news to us, not only do we lose our jobs but also our home.

 

“Well, it didn’t happen and he has had a couple of weekends here and showing no signs of stress. But he is an incredibly close person and never gives away anything.

 

“However in the past few weeks he has been served with loads of court papers and the wolves are howling at the door.

 

“He’s in all sorts of trouble with the law over his ownership of Rangers FC with some pretty serious threats of going to prison over his illegal activities.

 

“His ex wife has been very good filling us in on the details as she’s been watching him closely.

 

“There were terrorist threats to the castle and our boss and we have had to have anti-terrorist training.

 

“The bank could take over the castle and he hasn’t paid our salary for June. We have organised with his ex wife to collect the last of her possessions. She has left behind expensive stuff and we are going to take some of the high value things as it looks as if the bailiffs will take the rest and we want to be sure we don’t lose out.”

 

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/court-humiliation-ex-rangers-owner-craig-2314008

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