Businessman Who Tried To Buy Rangers Jailed

A businessman who once tried to buy Rangers with the Blue Knights consortium has been jailed for 10 months.

Paul MacKenzie,43, was caged at the Court of Session on Thursday for a breaking a legal order which prevented him from setting up a business to compete against his old company.

The former millionaire broke the terms of a severance package which was put in place by the American firm that took over his Kilmarnock based debt recovery enterprise.

He then repeatedly ignored an interdict which had been obtained from the Edinburgh court which ordered him to stop competing against MacKenzie Hall Holdings.

The court heard that on one occasion, MacKenzie disclosed secret confidential information about his old business.

On Thursday, judge Lord Doherty heard that MacKenzie had a gambling addiction which had caused him to fritter away his multi million pound fortune.

The court also heard that MacKenzie - who once owned two houses on the sunshine Island of Cape Verde - was now living on benefits.

Defence advocate George Gebbie pleaded with Lord Doherty to spare his client prison.

But the judge said that MacKenzie's disregard for the law was "wilful"and "calculated" and that he had no other option but to send him to jail.

Passing sentence, Lord Doherty said: "These breaches demonstrated a wilful defiance of the court's orders and a disregard for the consequences which your conduct would be likely to have on the petitioners.

"I consider the breaches to be very serious indeed. I have listened to all that has been said on your behalf and I am mindful in particular of your previous good character but I am clear that only a prison sentence would adequately mark the gravity and the circumstances of the breaches.

"The sentence which I do impose is one of 10 months imprisonment which will run from today's date."

The entrepreneur first hit the headlines for his role in the Blue Knights group who tried and failed to buy the Ibrox club in 2012.

Mr MacKenzie had accumulated a fortune from working in the highly competitive debt recollection industry.

But his luck turned after his business was bought by a US based tycoon.

In November 2014, Lord Doherty ordered MacKenzie to hand over £6.5 million to the owners of his old firm.

He was ordered to hand over the cash after sending a dodgy sick note to a judge in a bid to avoid appearing in court.

In a written judgment which was issued at the Court of Session in Edinburgh yesterday, Lord Doherty called the note invalid.

He ordered"While I recognise the sum sued for is a very large one and that the proper measures of damages is in issue, the defender has only himself to blame for not appearing at the proof."

MacKenzie sold the shares in his business for more than £10million in January 2012.

But the judge said he admitted he has now lost most of that "through spread betting on the financial markets and through gambling".

On Thursday, defence counsel George Gebbie said his client was a gambling addict and was receiving medical help for depression.

He added: "Although Mr MacKenzie achieved limited success at school he achieved considerable success in business - he managed a multi million pound business.

"However, he has now lost lost that fortune. He is now on benefits. Having been a man who was worth million, he is now a man who finds himself needing the assistance of the state. "He has a problem with a gambling addiction.

"There was spread betting.He bet on stocks and shares and the betting was what continued to motivate him.

"Although he had gained a fortune, it was not the money that interested him. It was his gambling problem.

"He has an addictive personality and he is receiving treatment for depression."

Mr Gebbie asked the court not to jail his client.

But Lord Doherty ordered MacKenzie - who arrived in court carrying a holdall containing his possessions - to be detained in custody.