With Rangers in the clear, Andrews insists he does not fear knock at door

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UPDATED:

00:14 GMT, 23 November 2012

No worries: Marvin Andrews

When a man believes in the power of prayer, the threat of a cash demand through the post is of minimal consequence.

Marvin Andrews says he will lose no sleep over the thought of HMRC or the Rangers liquidators coming after his money.

The reported recipient of 316,000 in loans from the Employee Benefit Trust (EBT) scheme introduced to Rangers by the Murray Group, the former Ibrox defender received a letter the same day he signed his contract with the club in May 2004.

romised to fund a sub-trust established in his name and set down a payment schedule, subject to his being a Rangers player on those dates.

The arrangements were far from unusual. The Trinidadian defender, now a pastor in Kirkcaldy, was one of 87 former players and members of staff offered an EBT.

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Up in the air: Questions remain about Rangers' use of EBTs

Instance page 79 of the FTT report, where the terms and conditions relating to the loans were drawn from verbal and documented evidence obtained during the tribunal. They were distinctly unusual.

According to the FTT report, for example, no security was ever requested or required for the hundreds of thousands of pounds borrowed.

Neither was scrutiny undertaken as to why the loans were being requested. Or any vetting performed on whether the loan could ever realistically be repaid.

Sportsmail asked yesterday why the loans were never recalled when the Lloyds Banking Group were knocking at the door of Murray Group demanding repayment of an 18m debt prior to the sale of the club to Craig Whyte.

The report answers that question by saying the players and employees who had an EBT understood they would never be expected to repay the loans against their wishes.

And what sticks out most is the assertion of many of the anonymous witnesses that the loans would never have to be repaid. Not, at least, during their life span.

The anonymous Mr Grey — the agent for a former Rangers manager — is quoted as saying: ‘I could not conceive of any situation where the loans would require to be repaid.’

Mr Violet, meanwhile — the former manager in question — adds: ‘While I knew these were loans, I never thought I would pay anything back during my lifetime.’

For players, managers and former employees alike, then, any suggestion that they might now be liable to pay back the cash will come as a grave shock to the system. An injustice, indeed.

‘I didn’t know what loopholes were in there or anything,’ shrugs Andrews. ‘If there is a problem, then I will deal with it when it comes.’

In trouble: Rangers were relegated due to their financial problems

Privately, the players argue they merely did what they were told. That joining the EBT was involuntary and offered alongside their personal contract on a ‘take it or leave it’ basis.

Yet the man who created EBTs and acted as an adviser to Rangers believes that is no defence. Paul Baxendale-Walker told Sportsmail last year that the players should be held liable for repaying any cash due to the Revenue.

‘The guarantees given to the players that they would not be pursued are very dangerous for the players,’ he said.

‘Because the rules say that if the employee knows what is going on and is party to it, then the employee is liable — not the employer.

‘The players may have been given assurances they wouldn’t be pursued for the money in future, but so what

‘Whoever received those payments now has to pay them back.’

It is far from certain that individual players will be pursued for cash, however.
Mark Houston, a partner at Johnston Carmichael Chartered Accountants in Edinburgh, believes HMRC have no remit to pursue the players unless it successfully appeals the tribunal decision.

‘The tribunal has ruled Rangers is not liable for tax on payments made under EBT on the basis that the payments were loans and not earnings,’ he said. ‘That effectively closes the door on HMRC being able to go after players.’

Liquidators BDO could still have the power to pursue all the loans on the basis that club money funded the trust, however. So far, they say they are merely reviewing the tribunal’s decision.

For many of the players who brought the glory days to Ibrox, however, the price of that success may yet prove to be unexpectedly heavy.