Former Rangers chief executive Martin Bain received a bonus of £360,000 for the sale of the club to Craig Whyte.

The High Court in Glasgow heard on Tuesday that Mr Bain had a longstanding agreement with the then-owners Murray Group to pay the amount.

Mike McGill, a former director of the club, told the court Mr Bain’s role in the transaction was “limited”.

An employee of the Murray Group, David Horne was paid £160,000 for his role in the deal.

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Mr McGill and another director of Rangers, Donald Muir, were also “incentivised” to facilitate the sale of the club but had to meet other targets with the Murray Group independent from the transaction.

Rangers were sold to Whyte in 2011. He is accused of fraud in his purchase of the Murray Group’s majority shareholding, as well as a charge under the Companies Act. The 46-year-old denies both charges.

His trial heard of a document dated in October 2010, eight months before his takeover, which outlined a proposed deal for the lending firm Ticketus to “part-fund the buyout” of Rangers by Whyte.

Craig Whyte: Former owner denies fraud charge. STV

The letter sought “approval in principle… to purchase £20m of season tickets for buyout and writedown of debt in Rangers FC”.

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Rangers previously used Ticketus for short-term working capital before Whyte’s involvement.

The football club was able to mortgage sales of season tickets to the company in return for an interest-based loan.

The document outlined how a team within Ticketus sought approval from fund managers to buy tickets over a course of three seasons, representing 45% of the club’s total season ticket inventory.

Donald Findlay QC, for the defence, said the document showed Ticketus “clearly knew the purpose behind the transaction Craig Whyte wanted to enter into”.

Mr McGill was asked to review handwritten notes from November 2010 authored by Rangers chairman Alastair Johnston, which referred to a possible £15m deal with Octopus and Whyte.

Octopus is the ultimate controlling company of Ticketus.

An email from Mr McGill to then-owner Sir David Murray and Mr Horne, sent in April 2011, a month before the sale of Rangers went through, spoke of a phone call with David Grier, who was representing Whyte.

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Mr Grier sought information on Rangers looming verdict in the so-called “big tax case”, which could have seen millions of pounds due by the club relating to a tax avoidance scheme.

Mr McGill said in his email that Mr Grier “let slip this opinion was required for Craig Whyte’s other investor.”

Mr Findlay put it to the witness that he and Sir David were aware of third-party funding forming part of Whyte’s deal prior to the takeover.

The witness replied that he “did not recall” other investors being discussed.

Put to him that it would have been an “obvious thing to do ” for those on the Murray Group side of the deal to enquire with Whyte if Octopus or Ticketus were funding his purchase, Mr McGill agreed but said they did not take such a course of action.