Ex-Soccer Players Sue St. James’s Place Over Tax-Avoidance Plan

(Bloomberg) --

A group of former soccer players, including ex-Chelsea player and television pundit Andy Townsend, sued St. James’s Place Wealth Management for advising them to make investments in British films that were later deemed tax-avoidance vehicles by U.K. authorities.

The case is being brought by fourteen investors, with seven saying they were told to invest in British films between 2005 and 2006 without being made aware of the risks by a partner at St. James’s, a lawyer for the defendants said at a London court. The other seven claimants in the lawsuit are suing over pension related investments made in small businesses.

The lawsuit is the latest fallout from the decade-old British film partnerships tax scandal. Investment in the U.K. film industry ballooned after then-Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown boosted tax credits for investing in movies in his 1997 budget. The change allowed investors to cut their personal tax bills, but U.K. authorities tightened the rules in 2007 after questions over the legitimacy of some of the productions.

Investment bankers, soccer players and British pop stars were pursued by tax authorities, with some later suing their wealth managers for advising them to put money into the schemes.

A spokesman for St. James’s Place Plc said the partner who pointed the investors toward the plan didn’t have its authorization to do so, and that St. James’s didn’t approve of the proposal. The spokesman also said that the partner had retired by the time many of the investments were made, and that others were placed through a self-invested personal pension by a third party.

According to a court filing, the group’s claim is worth 15 million pounds ($19.3 million). St James’s says that the statute of limitations on the claims has expired because the investments were made more than 10 years ago.

Among the other claimants in Thursday’s case are Linvoy Primus, who played for Portsmouth and was honored by the Queen in 2015, former Millwall player David Livermore, and Colin Cooper, who appeared twice for England’s national team in the 1990s.

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