A TRIAL involving Barnsley Football Club's owner has collapsed.
The retrial of Timothy Whiston, 45, and fellow executives Stephen Graham, 49, and John Whelan, 46, who are accused of forging a multi-million euro contract to supply the Health Service Executive (HSE) in order to mislead investors, has been discharged by the judge.
The three, along with Barnsley FC owner Patrick Cryne, 62, are said to have deliberately included revenue from software contracts with the Irish health system, which had yet to be received, in the published accounts of healthcare provider iSoft - transforming losses into profit.
Cryne was excused from legal proceedings due to ill health but Whiston, Graham and Whelan have been on trial since April at Southwark Crown Court in London, accused of making false statements to the markets about their firm.
But the latest three-month trial collapsed after Judge Anthony Leonard QC discharged the jury for reasons which cannot be reported.
Prosecutors are now considering whether to ask for a third trial.
The drama comes after more than three years of legal wrangling. The former directors, including Cryne, stood trial last year, but the jury failed to reach a verdict after a costly three-and-a-half month trial.
The collapse of this re-trial comes after months of hearings, just as barristers were preparing to make their closing speeches.
