Police Scotland spent £1.4m on Rangers investigation

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

Police Scotland spent at least £1.4m investigating a fraud probe related to the sale of Rangers FC, Chief Constable Iain Livingstone has revealed.

He gave the figure in a letter to MSPs following his appearance at a Holyrood committee last month.

Mr Livingstone also revealed how much compensation had been paid to former Rangers administrators David Whitehouse and Paul Clark.

The two men were wrongfully arrested during the police investigation.

Mr Livingstone said Mr Whitehouse had been paid £75,000 in damages and £235,000 in legal costs.

His colleague Paul Clark received up to £75,000 from police in damages, along with a "commensurate contribution" to his legal costs.

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Mr Clark and Mr Whitehouse have also received £10.5m each from the Crown Office, Scotland's criminal prosecution service, plus £3m each in legal costs after they settled out of court.

Mr Whitehouse and Mr Clark were appointed administrators when the company that ran the Glasgow football club went into administration in 2012.

The pair were arrested in 2014 but the Crown has since said the prosecution which followed was "malicious".

Last month, Scotland's most senior law officer publicly apologised to Mr Whitehouse and Mr Clark.

Lord Advocate James Wolffe QC said the case against them represented a "very serious failure" in the prosecution system.

A judge-led inquiry is to be held into why the men were wrongfully prosecuted.

However, it cannot begin until related legal proceedings brought by other people have concluded.

Scotland's chief constable appeared before the Scottish Parliament's public audit committee on 11 February but was unable to say how much the investigation had cost the force.

He has now written to committee convener Jenny Marra with more details.

Mr Livingstone could not say exactly how much police time was spent on the investigation as officers often worked on a number of cases at the same time.

However, he calculated that the cost of the "core team" on Operation Iona was £1m in salary payments between 2013 and 2016.

'Complex matters'

Mr Livingstone said that after that date the core team was stood down and investigation was part of usual police activity.

In addition to the salary costs, the chief constable said he had identified £400,000 in costs such as travel expenses.

In the letter, Mr Livingstone said: "Policing deals with challenging and complex matters, at all times with the aim of improving the lives of the public.

"Where we do not get everything right, reparations are dealt with on a case-by-case basis and with a view to securing fairness and best value for the public purse."

Mr Livingstone said lessons had been learned and the police would co-operate fully with the judicial inquiry into the matter.