Former Birmingham City FC owner would have had the same defence regardless of charges, prosecutors argue

Jailed former Birmingham City Football Club owner Carson Yeung Ka-sing has claimed in his money-laundering appeal hearing that prosecutors charged him too broadly, thereby limiting his options to defend himself. But prosecutors argued on Thursday that his line of defence would have been the same, regardless of how they charged him.

Barrister Clare Montgomery QC, for Yeung, argued on Wednesday that one money-laundering charge, which involved multiple receipts of funds in one account from unconnected people over six years, could not be considered a single offence. She said the defence would have been different if her client had faced more specific charges.

But Jonathan Caplan QC, a barrister for the prosecution, said on Thursday that was not the case: "Even if the count is split into some other arrangements, the prosecution case would have been the same … and the defence would have been the same."

Yeung was sentenced in February last year to six years in prison on five charges of laundering HK$721 million using five Wing Lung and HSBC bank accounts between 2001 and 2007.

Starting off as a hairstylist, Yeung claimed he accumulated his wealth through stock trading and gambling in Macau.

He shot to fame when he purchased the British football team.