Deja vu for Brady & Sullivan

  • by Staff Writer
  • Wednesday, 26th April 2017

News that West Ham was raided by a team representing HMRC earlier today may have come as a surprise to Hammers fans - but for two prominent board members, it was a case of deja vu.

For back in April 2009, then-Birmingham City chief executive Karren Brady and co-owner David Sullivan were arrested - twice - in a similar sting as part of Operation Apprentice, an investigation into fraudulent tax activity, before later being released on bail and later, cleared of all charges.

The investigation centred around transfer activity relating to agent Willie Mackay and also resulted in ex-Portsmouth trio Harry Redknapp, Peter Storrie and former owner Milan Mandaric being similarly collared following allegations of fraud and false accounting.




Speaking via a statement at the time regarding the arrest of Brady and Sullivan, after the two had been released with no charges, HMRC said: "The Revenue and Customs Prosecutions Office (RCPO) has reviewed the results of a joint investigation by the City of London Police and HM Revenue and Customs into allegations of payments to individuals which have not been declared to HM Revenue and Customs.

"It has been decided ... that, in relation to two employees of Birmingham City Football Club, criminal proceedings will not be instituted against them."




Brady, recalling the episode some months after her double-arrest said that it had left her in "a very dark place". "It was gut-wrenching," she told the Daily Mail. "Nobody should have to go through that when they have done nothing wrong.

"The only reason I wasn’t shouting from the roof tops when it was over was because I thought the less I said, the quicker it would go away. I didn’t want to have to justify myself or remind people of it.

"I had always thought, “No smoke without fire”, but now I know there can be lots of smoke, great billowing clouds of it, and absolutely no fire at all."

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