Jury sent home in Redknapp's trial

London: The jury trying Harry Redknapp on charges of tax evasion was sent home for the night after failing to come to a verdict following four hours of deliberations.

Judge Anthony Leonard instructed the jury to re-assemble at 10am tomorrow morning for the 13th day of the trial at Southwark Crown Court but warned them not to talk about the case overnight "or look for any information elsewhere".

The judge had finished his two-hour summing up of the case at 12.15pm before sending the jury out at 12.25pm to consider its verdict.

He had ordered the jurors to ignore the "deeply emotive" subject of football and instead focus on the evidence they had heard during the 12 days of the trial.

The judge told the eight men and four women on the jury that Redknapp and his co-accused Milan Mandaric "are both men of good character" and any pre-conceived prejudices should be ignored.

"This case is not about football but about some allegations of tax fraud set around the world of football," Judge Leonard said. "Football is an emotive subject, stirring in an individual anything from deep passion to resentment. It has become so commercialised that it may be thought by some to have lost its way."

The judge told the jurors they must reach a unanimous verdict . "The verdict must be one on which you are all agreed," he said. "You may have heard of a majority verdict. That will not apply here."

During the course of the afternoon Judge Leonard presided over two seperate trial hearings in the same court where Redknapp and Mandaric will discover ,their fate while the jury trying the two men deliberated.

Redknapp and Mandaric both deny two counts of cheating the public revenue stemming from their time as manager and owner of Portsmouth.

The prosecution claims payments totalling $295,000 (£189,000) made by Mandaric into an off-shore Monaco account belonging to Redknapp were bonuses related to his employment.

Jurors were warned by the prosecution to "keep their eyes on the ball" when they considered their verdicts.

Redknapp's barrister, John Kelsey-Fry QC, said on Monday that some of the crown's evidence was "repugnant to all our basic instincts of fairness".

Mandaric's QC, Lord Macdonald, said the prosecution was flailing, with paper-thin explanations for the Monaco payments. "We say the evidence against him is hopelessly weak," he said.

The first charge alleges that between 1 April 2002 and 28 November 2007 Mandaric paid $145,000 (£ 93,100) into the account.

The second charge relates to a sum of $150,000 (£ 96,300) allegedly paid between 1 May 2004 and 28.

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