Redknapp confident of acquittal

Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp is "confident" of clearing his name after being accused of an estimated £40,000 tax evasion.

The 62-year-old Londoner voluntarily attended Bishopsgate police station in the capital on Thursday to be charged with two counts of cheating the public revenue. The move comes at the end of an exhaustive 26-month police and tax inquiry into alleged corruption in English football.

Ian Burton, Redknapp's solicitor, said: "Harry has co-operated fully with investigators during the course of this inquiry and is confident of a successful outcome to these court proceedings."

Redknapp was charged at the station at 3.48pm, Burton said. "The £40,000 figure is our estimate," the solicitor added.

Charges concern two payments, totalling 295,000 US dollars (£183,000), from former Portsmouth chairman Milan Mandaric to Redknapp via a bank account in Monaco, evading the tax and National Insurance contributions due between April 1, 2002 and November 28, 2007.

The Premier League manager will appear at City of Westminster Magistrates' Court on February 11, a Crown Prosecution Service spokesman said.

A statement added: "The CPS Revenue and Customs Division decided there was sufficient evidence and it was in the public interest to charge Mr Redknapp.

"He is jointly charged with Milan Mandaric, the former chairman of Portsmouth City (sic) Football Club, following an investigation by the City of London Police and HM Revenue & Customs."

Redknapp's arrest was part of a wider inquiry, dubbed Operation Apprentice, by City of London Police and HM Revenue and Customs into alleged football corruption.