Lord Advocate says sorry to former Rangers administrators

Scotland's most senior law officer has publicly apologised to two men wrongfully prosecuted during a fraud probe relating to the sale of Rangers.

Lord Advocate James Wolffe QC said the case against David Whitehouse and Paul Clark represented a "very serious failure" in the prosecution system.

The financial experts were appointed when the company that ran the football club went into administration in 2012.

They were arrested in 2014 but all charges were later dropped.

The Crown has since said their prosecution was "malicious" and both men were awarded £10.5m each in damages.

Mr Wolffe, who was not the lord advocate at the time of the initial prosecutions, revealed the taxpayer would also pay any tax due on these pay-outs.

Opposition parties want an independent public inquiry into what went wrong with the prosecutions.

In a statement to the Scottish Parliament, Mr Wolffe issued an "unreserved apology" to Mr Whitehouse and Mr Clark, saying they should not have been prosecuted.

He added: "In this particular case there was a very serious failure in the system of prosecution.

"It did not live up to the standards I expect, which the public and this parliament are entitled to expect, and which the Crown Office expects of itself.

"What happened in this particular case should not have happened, I tender my apology to the parliament and the public that it did happen, and for the consequent cost to the public purse."

Mr Wolffe added there had been "significant departure from standard practice" in this prosecution but said wider lessons had been learned.

David Whitehouse (left) and Paul Clark (right) were awarded damages after being wrongfully prosecuted

Mr Wolffe admitted liability in August last year. After this, mediation took place, resulting in both men being paid £10.5m in damages.

However, Mr Wolffe said there was no criminal misconduct in the Crown Office's investigation.

In response, Mr Whitehouse issued a statement saying people within the Crown Office took a series of decisions that resulted in him and Mr Clark being "hauled out of our homes, falsely accused of crimes, incarcerated and prosecuted with malice".

"Those people should be held accountable," he said. "I firmly believe that a criminal investigation is justified."

'This was not simple human error'

At Holyrood, Tory finance spokesman Murdo Fraser called for a public inquiry into the issue and for it to be led by a judge from outside of Scotland.

He said: "Not only will this end up costing taxpayers tens of millions of pounds at a time when our police and courts are in desperate need of resources, but it raises fundamental questions about integrity.

"This was not simple human error or an obscure legal mistake. Our prosecution service has admitted that, acting with malice, they sought to throw innocent men behind bars and destroy their reputations."

Labour justice spokeswoman Rhoda Grant said: "The lord advocate says that the system has been improved, but there cannot be proper scrutiny of this until we know exactly what went wrong in the first place.

"Until this happens, how can he expect to restore confidence in the system?"

Scottish Green MSP John Finnie said: "The lord advocate must commit to undertaking the considerable work required to restore public confidence in Scotland's justice system.

"The checks and balances cited by the lord advocate as reasons people can have faith in the system seem to have been completely bypassed in this appalling situation."

Scottish Liberal Democrat MSP Liam McArthur said: "This is a true scandal of monumental monetary terms."

He also called for "a full, independent and judge-led inquiry".