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taken from the Daily Telegraph
In the most significant case of its kind since the collapse of criminal charges against Kieren Fallon in 2007, 13 people will on Thursday face charges at the British Horseracing Authority’s headquarters in Holborn. The case is among the most complex and costly ever mounted by the BHA, with a number of senior QCs involved in the prosecution and all the accused expected to contest the charges.
It is alleged that two licensed owners, Maurice Sines and James Crickmore, were at the heart of a systematic conspiracy to corrupt jockeys to deliberately ride losers to profit on gambling markets.
The four jockeys are Paul Doe, Greg Fairley, Jimmy Quinn, and Kirsty Milczarek, who is the girlfriend of former champion jockey, Kieren Fallon.
There is no suggestion Fallon is involved in any wrongdoing.
Paul Fitzsimons, now a licensed trainer, has also been charged for offences allegedly committed when he was a jockey.
Using phone records and betting accounts the BHA prosecution, led by Mark Warby QC, will allege that the jockeys were paid by Sines and Crickmore to ensure that particular horses lost, and to pass inside information to gamblers. They will say the horses were then “laid” to lose on betting exchanges by associates of the businessmen.
The charges relate to 10 Flat races run between January and August 2009.
Fairley is charged with throwing three races, Doe two, and Quinn, Fitzsimons and Milczarek one each.
They are charged with conspiring to commit a corrupt or fraudulent practice; passing information to betting exchange account holders for “material reward, gift, favour or benefit in kind”; and intentionally failing to ensure that horses ran on their merits.
If found guilty the jockeys and alleged conspirators face lengthy bans from racing of between five and 25 years, with eight years the entry level for deliberately riding to lose.
Fitzsimons’s lawyer, Andrew Chalk, said he will deny the charges: “We have informed the BHA that Paul Fitzsimons denies the charges and will be vigorously contesting them,” he said.
Milczarek’s solicitor, Christopher Stewart-Moore, said she would also deny the charges. She will be defended at the hearing by Ian Winter QC.
The Daily Telegraph understands that the investigation was sparked by reports of suspicious bets from a major bookmaking firm. The bookmaker allegedly told the BHA that a punter had attempted to place a six-figure bet on a horse in one of the races under suspicion, which they believed was a deliberate attempt to lower the odds.
A bet of that size would automatically lower the odds across the market, reducing the risk for conspirators planning to back the horse to lose.
Sines and Crickmore have held shares in more than a dozen horses since 2004 and in March Sines was reported to have spent £130,000 on a colt at the Kempton breeze-up sale, the highest price paid for any lot.
The pair are business partners and have extensive interests in static caravan and holiday parks across the south-east and in East Anglia.
Sines, who has owned homes in the affluent Berkshire towns of Old Windsor and Virginia Water, has previously been accused of intimidating residents on mobile home parks he owns, charges he denied.
In 2005 residents of Ladycroft Park in Blewbury, Oxfordshire obtained a court order against him in which he agreed not to threaten, abuse or harass residents, and not to block sales. In 2006 local MP Ed Vazey told Parliament in 2006 that he had made residents’ lives “a living hell” through intimidation.
Sines did not respond to attempts to contact him on Wednesday. Crickmore told The Daily Telegraph he did not want to comment on the case.
Six other men are charged conspiring to commit a corrupt or fraudulent practice. Among them are Peter and Nick Gold, thought to be father and son, who will be defended by Jonathan Caplan QC, who led the failed prosecution case in the Fallon trial.
Nick Gold, 39, is executive chairman of PALCO Ltd, a plastics firm, and runs Nick Gold Investments. According to the company’s website, which was disabled on Wednesday, Nick Gold Investments has interests in 33 companies and has conducted “over £300 million of transactions in the last three years”, specialising in “difficult deals and investing in challenging businesses”.
Gold did not respond to attempts to contact him on Wednesday.
The others accused are Shaun Harris, David Kendrick, Darren May and Liam Vasey.
The BHA 10-day hearing, which is closed to the media, is expected to finish on Nov 3, with verdicts expected around a fortnight later.
In the most significant case of its kind since the collapse of criminal charges against Kieren Fallon in 2007, 13 people will on Thursday face charges at the British Horseracing Authority’s headquarters in Holborn. The case is among the most complex and costly ever mounted by the BHA, with a number of senior QCs involved in the prosecution and all the accused expected to contest the charges.
It is alleged that two licensed owners, Maurice Sines and James Crickmore, were at the heart of a systematic conspiracy to corrupt jockeys to deliberately ride losers to profit on gambling markets.
The four jockeys are Paul Doe, Greg Fairley, Jimmy Quinn, and Kirsty Milczarek, who is the girlfriend of former champion jockey, Kieren Fallon.
There is no suggestion Fallon is involved in any wrongdoing.
Paul Fitzsimons, now a licensed trainer, has also been charged for offences allegedly committed when he was a jockey.
Using phone records and betting accounts the BHA prosecution, led by Mark Warby QC, will allege that the jockeys were paid by Sines and Crickmore to ensure that particular horses lost, and to pass inside information to gamblers. They will say the horses were then “laid” to lose on betting exchanges by associates of the businessmen.
The charges relate to 10 Flat races run between January and August 2009.
Fairley is charged with throwing three races, Doe two, and Quinn, Fitzsimons and Milczarek one each.
They are charged with conspiring to commit a corrupt or fraudulent practice; passing information to betting exchange account holders for “material reward, gift, favour or benefit in kind”; and intentionally failing to ensure that horses ran on their merits.
If found guilty the jockeys and alleged conspirators face lengthy bans from racing of between five and 25 years, with eight years the entry level for deliberately riding to lose.
Fitzsimons’s lawyer, Andrew Chalk, said he will deny the charges: “We have informed the BHA that Paul Fitzsimons denies the charges and will be vigorously contesting them,” he said.
Milczarek’s solicitor, Christopher Stewart-Moore, said she would also deny the charges. She will be defended at the hearing by Ian Winter QC.
The Daily Telegraph understands that the investigation was sparked by reports of suspicious bets from a major bookmaking firm. The bookmaker allegedly told the BHA that a punter had attempted to place a six-figure bet on a horse in one of the races under suspicion, which they believed was a deliberate attempt to lower the odds.
A bet of that size would automatically lower the odds across the market, reducing the risk for conspirators planning to back the horse to lose.
Sines and Crickmore have held shares in more than a dozen horses since 2004 and in March Sines was reported to have spent £130,000 on a colt at the Kempton breeze-up sale, the highest price paid for any lot.
The pair are business partners and have extensive interests in static caravan and holiday parks across the south-east and in East Anglia.
Sines, who has owned homes in the affluent Berkshire towns of Old Windsor and Virginia Water, has previously been accused of intimidating residents on mobile home parks he owns, charges he denied.
In 2005 residents of Ladycroft Park in Blewbury, Oxfordshire obtained a court order against him in which he agreed not to threaten, abuse or harass residents, and not to block sales. In 2006 local MP Ed Vazey told Parliament in 2006 that he had made residents’ lives “a living hell” through intimidation.
Sines did not respond to attempts to contact him on Wednesday. Crickmore told The Daily Telegraph he did not want to comment on the case.
Six other men are charged conspiring to commit a corrupt or fraudulent practice. Among them are Peter and Nick Gold, thought to be father and son, who will be defended by Jonathan Caplan QC, who led the failed prosecution case in the Fallon trial.
Nick Gold, 39, is executive chairman of PALCO Ltd, a plastics firm, and runs Nick Gold Investments. According to the company’s website, which was disabled on Wednesday, Nick Gold Investments has interests in 33 companies and has conducted “over £300 million of transactions in the last three years”, specialising in “difficult deals and investing in challenging businesses”.
Gold did not respond to attempts to contact him on Wednesday.
The others accused are Shaun Harris, David Kendrick, Darren May and Liam Vasey.
The BHA 10-day hearing, which is closed to the media, is expected to finish on Nov 3, with verdicts expected around a fortnight later.
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You are way behind. This was posted on another thread yesterday
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apologies then. I never noticed it.
I only pop on here in the mornings for a bit now and sometimes in the evenings. I don't spend so much time here now as I used to since I stopped betting on horses, although I have been getting involved in the whip debate as the new rules are seriously affecting UK racing (and gambling) |
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Great to see the 'Fit and Proper' test has yet again been applied so vigorously to those with interests in Horse racing...
Thank goodness you'd never see footballers with criminal records and prison time for serious violence, for example, being welcomed with open arms by the racing fraternity... |