Crown agrees £6.39m to Green for wrongful prosecution

A further £6.39m settlement has been reached in the latest action for wrongful prosecution arising out of the administration of Rangers Football Club.

Charles Green, the former chief executive of the club, accepted the compensation, agreed at £6,393,046 together with legal costs, just as an eight day proof on quantum was due to begin at the Court of Session.

In June the then Lord Advocate, James Wolffe QC, made a public apology to Mr Green, who was arrested and charged between 2015 and 2016 during a fraud investigation into the sale of the club, but later told he had been subject to a "malicious" prosecution.

Mr Wolffe, who was not Lord Advocate during the criminal proceedings, told the Scottish Parliament: "They should not have been prosecuted and, as Lord Advocate and head of the system for the prosecution of crime in Scotland, I have apologised unreservedly that they were."

The settlement adds to the £24m cost to the public purse arising from the agreements reached last December with the administrators, David Whitehouse and Paul Clark, in proceedings against the Crown and Police Scotland. Mr Green also sued the police but dropped that part of his claim.

Accepting the settlement in court before Lord Tyre, Garry Borland QC for Mr Green said his client had been the victim of "an egregious wrong" at the hands of the prosecuting authorities.

A judge-led public inquiry will be held into how the malicious prosecutions were allowed to happen, once remaining civil claims have been settled. A total of six men were charged, but all subsequently cleared.