Craig Whyte: Former Rangers owner loses appeal

Scottish businessman Whyte appealed after being ordered to pay more than £17million to Ticketus earlier this year.

The 42-year-old, who purchased Rangers from Sir David Murray in May 2011, asked Deputy High Court Judge David Halpern QC to overturn the ruling, made by a more junior judge, at a hearing in London, but his appeal was dismissed.

Ticketus said Whyte fraudulently or negligently made representations which induced the company to enter into agreements related to the sale or purchase of Rangers season tickets, and claimed damages.

Whyte sold the future sale of three years' worth of Ibrox season tickets to Ticketus for £25m as he moved for the club in May 2011, but Ticketus said they would not have entered into that agreement had they have known that Whyte had been barred from a directorship back in 2000.

Whyte disputed Ticketus' claims, but in April a High Court master ruled against him prior to a trial after Ticketus argued that he had "no real prospect" of mounting a successful defence and ordered him to pay £17.6m.

Lawyers for Whyte, who put Rangers into administration in February 2012, appealed and argued that the master's decision to grant a "summary judgment" had been unfair.

They said the case should be allowed to go to trial and said Whyte had a "realistic" defence.

Judge Halpern heard evidence and legal argument at the High Court in London in November.

He said the master was entitled to give "summary judgment" and said he would have reached the same conclusion.

Whyte was ordered to pay all the legal costs of the appeal - a sum thought to total tens of thousands of pounds.