Rangers fraud case: Six of 15 charges dropped by Crown Published duration 5 February 2016

image copyright PA image caption Charles Green (left) and Craig Whyte face charges over their involvement with Rangers

Prosecutors have withdrawn six of 15 charges brought against six men in the alleged Rangers fraud case.

Indictments have been served on former Rangers owner Craig Whyte and ex-chief executive Charles Green.

Lawyer Gary Withey also faces charges along with David Whitehouse, Paul Clark and David Grier, who all worked for administrators Duff and Phelps.

The remaining nine charges are being heard at a preliminary hearing at the High Court in Edinburgh.

Among the allegations dropped by the Crown was a charge that the joint administrators, David Whitehouse and Paul Clark, attempted to pervert the course of justice.

Amended charge

Prosecutors also withdrew a charge that the pair, along with Mr Whyte, Mr Withey and Mr Grier, agreed to do something that they knew or suspected or ought reasonably to have known or suspected would enable or further the commission of serious organised crime.

image copyright Other image caption (Clockwise from top left) Gary Withey, David Grier, Paul Clark and David Whitehouse

Mr Whitehouse, 50, Mr Clark, 51, were also taken out of an amended charge which now alleges that Mr Whyte, 45, Mr Withey, 51, and Mr Grier, 54, conspired together between 1 January in 2010 and 6 May in 2011 to obtain a controlling stake in the shareholding of the Ibrox club.

A further charge alleging that Mr Whyte, Mr Whitehouse, Mr Clark and Mr Green, 62, participated in a conspiracy to buy the business and assets of The Rangers Football Club plc in 2012 from the administrators at significantly below the true market value was also dropped.

Mr Whyte bought Rangers from Sir David Murray in 2011 for a nominal sum of £1 but it went into administration the following year.