Former Livingston FC chairman and Celtic FC director Dominic Keane has been cleared of fraud charges at the High Court in Edinburgh.

The 56-year-old football mogul had been accused of tricking lottery winner John McGuinness and businessman William Haughey into a loan refinancing deal at the West Lothian club.

However, on Thursday afternoon a jury found Mr Keane not guilty of the charges. The jury cleared him on a majority verdict after 40 minutes.

Mr Keane shouted "yes" when the jury returned a verdict of not guilty.

Outside court he said: "This has been a nightmare for the last four years and now it's all over. And honestly I just want to go home and be with my family."

Ruling out a return to football, he added: "I'm going to enjoy the rest of my life. It's been four years this has been going on for now and it's taken its toll. But at the end of the day I'm just so pleased that so many people who I know behind the scenes have supported me and I'm so grateful for all the witnesses - Crown and defence witnesses - who stood up and counted at the right time."

An extended interview with Mr Keane following the verdict can be found here.

The £2.3million fraud allegation had centred on conflicting allegations over "forged" signatures on loan documents.

Maurice Smyth, defence counsel, said ahead of the verdict that the trial was a "beauty contest" between Mr Keane and Mr Haughey.

Mr Keane insisted that all three men had been present to sign the five-year extension at Hampden Stadium on April 14 2001. The jury rejected the Crown’s allegations that Mr Keane had deceived Mr McGuinness into believing that Mr Haughey had already signed the papers.

Mr Smyth said Mr Haughey wanted to distance himself from worsening finances at the club and added: "He saw the writing on the wall and started tiptoeing away in the hope that if he was not conjoined with the others he could escape all responsibility for that loan.

"That's really what Mr Haughey is doing - he is minimising and reducing his part with Livingston."

The court had heard that the refinancing loan was only an extension of an earlier deal, which had been publicly announced by all three at a press conference.

"Why should anyone, or could anyone, be reluctant to sign that document," he demanded.

Mr Keane, of Glasgow, had been accused of knowing Mr Haughey's signatures were faked to fraudulently obtain the deal fraudulently, leaving his two partners liable.

In his summation advocate-depute Alastair Brown told the jury: "The fundamental issue, the critical question for you to decide I suggest is whether it is proved that the signatures W Haughey on each of the loan agreements is forged."

Independent handwriting experts gave evidence that Mr Haughey's signatures could have been freehand copies.

Mr Brown had claimed that Mr Keane was motivated only by profit.

"The purpose was not to support Livingston Football Club out of any deep commitment," he said. "The football club was a means to an end - the purpose was profit."

Mr Brown told the jury that Mr Haughey's signatures were forged.

"He used them to get Mr McGuinness to sign and used them to get the refinancing," he added. "As a result the debt was refinanced while the financial situation at Livingston Football Club continued to deteriorate with mounting accumulated losses and mounting creditors."

The court was told that the contents of a "confession" letter in which Mr Keane accepted responsibility for the club's financial mess was "not true".