FORMER Rangers chief executive faces a challenge from the Lord Advocate over his claim of £20m for being wrongfully prosecuted in the club fraud case.

Both former finance chief Imran Ahmad and Mr Green are going through a court battle with the Lord Advocate and the Chief Constable over how much they will receive in connection with the wrongful arrests.

Part of Mr Mr Green's claim relates to losses made from two businesses after he was prosecuted.

Lord Advocate James Wolffe last week made a public apology to both men as the damages cases were due to be progressed.

Mr Green, whose Sevco consortium, bought the assets of the club business in liquidation nine years ago for £5.5m is due to receive compensation after Crown lawyers accepted he was subjected to a malicious fraud prosecution.

READ MORE: Ex-Rangers execs Charles Green and Imran Ahmad get public apology over wrongful prosecution

A full hearing in his £20m damages claim over wrongful arrest to decide how much should be awarded was due in August, but his solicitors raised concerns yesterday that it was being delayed.

Mr Ahmad is also pursuing an amount that could run to £30m, after he was wrongly prosecuted on fraud charges. Court documents state that at present it is a £2m claim.

Both men are being represented by former Advocates General for Scotland, law officers of the Crown, whose duty it is to advise the UK government on Scots law.

Lord Davidson for Mr Ahmad, was Advocate General under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown's Labour government between March, 2006 and May, 2010, while Lord Keen for Mr Green was in office between May 2015 and September, 2020 under the Tory governments of David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson.

Gerry Moynihan QC, for the Lord Advocate James Wolffe said more information was needed about the financial losses relating to Mr Green.

He said one of the issues in the cases related to the amount of damage that was done to a company  both men had been involved with called Proton International. There was further information needed on damage done to a firm Mr Green had been involved with, Florida-based firm called Croton.

Mr Moynihan said Mr Green’s legal team had submitted a report written by staff members of international financial services company KPMG about the financial losses.

The Herald:

Lord Keen said that issues over shared information regarding the damages cases should not be a barrier to progress.

"It seems that the Lord Advocate has simply done nothing about that until now. You have to remember the events we are concerned with took place six years ago. If matters are deferred yet again Mr Green is going to be further prejudiced by the actions of the Lord Advocate, it seems wholly inappropriate,"he said.

Lord Tyre, who referred Mr Green's case to the commercial court said he can "tailor things accordingly to ensure that orders are made for disclosure of information while retaining the possibility" of the case being heard as scheduled in August.

He said at the Court of Session that he would not refer Mr Ahmad's case to the commercial court, saying he wanted to encourage mediation.

Both men were told three years ago they would face no further proceedings in connection with the case as prosecutors said there is "now no evidence of a crime".

The decision by the Crown Office had marked the end of the two-and-a-half-year long proceedings which saw only Craig Whyte face trial and led to no convictions.

The Lord Advocate in a public apology said: "Between 2015 and 2016 Mr Imran Ahmad and Mr Charles Green were prosecuted in the High Court concerning matters associated with Rangers Football Club.

READ MORE: Ex-Rangers execs Charles Green and Imran Ahmad finally in the clear as club takeover fraud case ends

"They should not have been prosecuted and, as Lord Advocate and head of the system for the prosecution of crime in Scotland, I have apologised unreservedly that they were.

"I made a statement to the Scottish Parliament following the settlement of two related cases, and I said at that time that there had been profound departures from normal practice.

"Lessons have been learned from what happened and the Crown Office & Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) has taken steps to prevent a similar situation arising in the future.

"I have given a commitment that there will be a judge-led inquiry into these matters once all relevant legal cases have concluded.

"The actions by Mr Ahmad and Mr Green continue with a view to settlement of their financial claims."

Mr Whyte, who ended up being the last man standing in the long-running case, was cleared in the summer of 2017 of all charges in connection with his takeover of seven years ago.

Lord Tyre agreed to transfer Mr Green's case to the commercial roll.

He added: “I am persuaded that it would be beneficial to have this case managed under commercial procedure. I will therefore grant the motion for a remit to the commercial roll and therefore this is effectively a preliminary hearing.

“I will say once again in this case, as in the other case, that I have sympathy for the Lord Advocate’s position in relation to the obtaining of information.

“I take the point that time has passed and in particularly this case when the dates were set aside for August last October, there did seem to be a lot of time and a lot of time has gone past. And I’m not apportioning blame for that but things have to move forward now. I will not remove the dates set aside in the court diary for the time being. "