Redknapp´s lawyers slam police over arrest

Harry Redknapp's lawyer accused the police in court Friday of using an unlawful warrant and tipping off the press when they raided the Portsmouth manager's home as part of a football corruption probe.

Alun Jones hit out in the High Court in London, where judges David Latham and Nicholas Underhill were considering Redknapp's application for a judicial review.

The court action comes just over two weeks before Portsmouth face Cardiff in the FA Cup final at London's Wembley Stadium on May 17.

The Pompey boss is challenging the police's decision to arrest and bail him and issue a warrant to raid his home in Poole on the southern English coast.

Redknapp was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud and false accounting in November 2007.

Police lawyers argued that the warrant was valid and had been granted on legitimate grounds. They strongly denied that police had tipped off the media.

The 6:00 am raid on Redknapp's house was captured by tabloid newspaper photographers, as was his departure from Chichester police station later in the day, with “sensational” front-page newspaper coverage following, Jones said.

“It is our case that they (the media) had been deliberately informed about this by the police,” he said.

For legal reasons relating to the nature of the material being sought by the police, the court had “no power” to issue the warrant, Jones argued.

He told the judges that Redknapp was abroad at the time of the raid. When he arrived back in Britain later that day, he voluntarily attended Chichester police station where he was immediately arrested and detained for seven hours.

Following Redknapp's arrest, he called a press conference to say he was furious about his and his family's treatment and felt he had been targeted to raise the investigation's profile.

Nine people have been bailed in connection with the inquiry. They include Birmingham City managing director Karren Brady and co-owner David Sullivan.