Northampton Crown Court Report Saturday, 18th Jul 2009 01:24 RamZone's Court Reporter was present at Northampton Crown Court on Friday and will be bringing us all of the news from a trial that has every Derby fan awaiting its outcome. Northampton Crown Court Friday 17th July Court 4 at 2.30pm His Honour Judge Ian Alexander QC The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) opened proceedings by mentioning the Proceeds of Crime Act Section 6 and said that Derby County Football Club had asked for compensation of £375,000 net of VAT plus interest.
Paul Mann QC on behalf of Jeremy Keith was the first to mitigate on behalf of his client. He stated that JK had not been convicted as a ‘conspirator’ or for laundering and had admitted he received £125,000. He did what he did because he was deceived. He has been married 20 years and has daughters age 17 & 12. He does a lot of work for his church and in his community. He is 7 months in arrears with his mortgage and has debts of around £110,000 JK has indicated his willingness to do Community Service. Regarding disqualification as a company director, he was foolish but that doesn’t make him unfit to be a director. If he is disqualified it will prevent him from working in his line of business. He has suffered greatly as a result of this case and so have his family. Andrew Mackenzie’s barrister asked the Judge to take into account the Pre-Sentence Report (PSR) and the 5 submitted character references. He stated that it was not necessary to impose an immediate custodial sentence because there was no vulnerable victim and there would be no great public outcry if he did not receive a custodial sentence (!!) On and off since 1977 he has been involved with Edexcel and won an award for his work and since 2000 he was involved with Sporting Futures. Reference was made to a medical report which the Judge had read and the details were not made public. He and his family have suffered greatly as a result of this case especially as they live in Derby whereas other defendants do not. Before Murdo Mackay’s barrister could speak, the Judge announced that he had received a lengthy e-mail from Karen Mackay, estranged wife of Murdo. She was making an impassioned plea that her half of the assets (presumably from the sale of his house in Dalgety Bay) should not be taken into account as they were rightly hers and her children’s. Mackay had admitted receiving £250,000 which was to be split equally between himself and Andrew Mackenzie. He had also sworn an affidavit concerning this on 9th February 2006 (Note: This case has had a considerable impact on him and all he has ever wanted to do was work in football. He comes from a strict Christian Scottish Presbyterian background. A plea was made for a non-custodial sentence. His barrister said it was a victimless crime and the Judge said that was nonsense, the fans of DCFC were the victims – it was their money paid going through the gate. The barrister waffled on about how many fans there were and it would only be a fraction for each, the Judge brushed this aside. David Lowe’s barrister stated that he had merely acted as a conduit moving money from Mackay to Mackenzie and had used his own personal Halifax bank account. This was one solitary act. Everyone who knew him was amazed that he had risked his reputation and career on such a misjudgment for the measly sum of $14,000 (approx £10,000) The Judge commented that he lived the high life in Monaco and owned a £1.5 million yacht and various properties……at which his barrister declared that he actually only owned one flat – in Knightsbridge!! He had been earning between £200,000 and £400,000 a year and had been worth £45million but now he was worth around £450,000 in personal wealth. The usher was despatched to find a Probation Officer to prepare such a report but at 4.30pm on a Friday they had all gone home. A report was to be prepared for Monday morning but the barrister for Lowe stated that he would be unable to attend but that ‘someone would be in court to represent him’. Other points of note: Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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