Dominic Keane and Glasgow businessman William Haughey had previously been together on the board of Celtic, before taking Livingston from the Second Division to the Scottish Premier League, the High Court in Edinburgh heard.
But off the field, the ambition of getting into the SPL meant spending some £2m bringing the ground up to the minimum standard of having a 10,000 seat stadium.
Eventually Livingston went into administration in 2004 with debts of £3.5m and squabbles over major policy – such as training young players – and minor issues, such as wasted pies when bad weather caused a match to be cancelled.
Mr Keane, 54, of Uddingston, Glasgow, now stands accused of using Mr Haughey’s name and business standing to further a £2.3m fraud scheme dating back to October 1999 – a charge he denies.
An indictment, which took 10 minutes to read to the jury, details how Mr Keane is alleged to have gone to a firm of accountants asking them to prepare paperwork that could be presented to the Royal Bank of Scotland to support an application for an overdraft and debt guarantees.
Richard Gilliland, 51, senior partner in the Glasgow firm said he was told that the purpose of the approach to the bank was to raise funds for Livingston Football Club to build their new stand.
He also said that at no time during the preparation of the “bank funding report” did he get any information from Mr Haughey or lottery winner John McGuinness, another Livingston backer.
It is alleged by the prosecution that Mr Keane pretended there was a partnership between himself, Mr Haughey and Mr McGuiness when Mr Haughey knew nothing of the arrangement and Mr McGuinness’s involvement had been secured by false pretences.
It is claimed that Mr Keane persuaded Mr Haughey to sign papers without reading them and that Mr McGuinness was persuaded to sign up because he trusted Mr Haughey’s business judgment.
Mr McGuinness was also persuaded to put up £175,000 from life assurance policies in security and lost all his assets when the Royal Bank of Scotland later came after their £2,336,039.
Mr Keane is also accused of stealing a share certificate from Mr Haughey’s firm – City Refrigeration Holdings UK Ltd – and conning the Royal Bank into accepting it as security.
The trial heard that another member of Livingston Football Club’s board was Dr Tony Kinder, a senior lecturer in business studies at Edinburgh University, who took up a non-executive and non-paid seat when he was a councillor in West Lothian.
Dr Kinder, 60, told the trial: “Very responsible people heard Willie indicate that he, personally, was injecting money into the football club, the purpose of which was to build two stands.”
He said it didn’t matter to him where the money was coming from “as long as it was legal, of course”.
The trial heard that Mr Haughey’s involvement with Livingston began to tail off and that there were a number of fallouts between Mr Keane and Mr Haughey.
Dr Kinder also agreed with solicitor advocate Maurice Smyth, defending Mr Keane, that Mr Keane worked 24/7 for the good of Livingston.
The trial continues.
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