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Peter Storrie faces January trial for tax evasion
16 Nov 2009Portsmouth chief executive Peter Storrie will stand trial on 20 January accused of tax evasion.
The 57-year-old was at City of Westminster Magistrates' Court today, when the date for the trial at Southwark Crown Court was fixed.
It was Storrie's first appearance in court on a charge of cheating the public revenue relating to the transfer of Amdy Faye from Auxerre to Portsmouth for £1.5million in August 2003.
It is alleged Storrie concealed Faye's £250,000 signing-on fee as he arranged for it to be paid to the midfielder via the bank account of an agent, Willie McKay, so that tax and national insurance were not paid.
Storrie stood silently in court as the charge was read out but last month he issued a statement in which he insisted he would defend himself in the "strongest possible terms".
He was bailed after being arrested in November 2007 as part of the joint Operation Apprentice probe with HM Revenue and Customs.
Reader views (1)
So Amdy Faye profited about £100,000 by not paying tax on his signing-on fee. Has he repaid this?
And it's taken 6 years, probably a cast of hundreds of police, tax officials and pen-pushers (at a cost of a few million pounds) to follow this up and find someone (obviously not Willie McKay or Amdy Faye) to blame.
Unlucky for Peter Storrie that he wasn't an MP or connected to one for he could then explain how he made no money from the deal, and, even if he had, he could repay it without interest being charged.
Finally, is this the first case of a foreign footballer not paying taxes in this country? Do Drogba, Roberto, van Persie or Ronaldo always pay their 40% plus NIC?
Or do they spirit their cash away to some foreign shores where tax is forgotten?
Football as a whole is a roten apple just waiting for the inland revenue to enter the books of every football club, but for some reason they don't.
So I feel sorry for Mr Storrie as he seems to be an easy target despite not making a penny out of the transaction.
Good luck Mr Storrie.
- The Equaliser, Winchester, 16/11/2009 15:28
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