Birmingham owner suffers laundering trial setback

Birmingham City owner Carson Yeung has failed to get the money laundering case against him dismissed.

The Hong Kong businessman was hoping the judge would agree that the absence of some documents would make a fair trial impossible.

However, District Court judge Douglas Yau rejected Yeung’s claims over charges of “dealing with property known or believed to represent proceeds of an indictable offence” between 2001 and 2007.

Defence counsel Graham Harris stated that Yeung could not receive a fair trial as he was unable to secure documents that might be crucial to his case.

The prosecution have claimed that deposits of about 60 million pounds were made to accounts in the name of Yeung and his father, despite a combined income of only 180,000 pounds.

Prosecutor John Reading SC said there were 437 cash deposits made by unknown parties with cheques from a company operating casinos in Macau totalling six million pounds.

Trading in shares of the Championship club’s parent company were suspended after Yeung was arrested in June 2011 with it valued at 50 million pounds. The trial resumes next Tuesday.