Illegal payments has Boston United officials in trial

A jury was told yesterday that five officials at Boston United systematically cheated the taxman out of GBP 323,000 over a period of four years in an attempt to revive the ailing fortunes of the club.

The scheme was successful enough that Boston enjoyed promotion to the Football League as well as soaring attendances. The motivation had not been personal greed but a desire to prevent the financial collapse of the Lincolnshire club, according to Martin Hicks QC, for the prosecution.

Boston had gone from employing part-time to full-time players and saw crowds increase dramatically. Wages and bonuses paid to players and other staff had been disguised as expenses to avoid paying tax, Hicks said. "In doing so Boston United secured undoubtedly a competitive advantage, an advantage over rival football clubs, their players and their supporters at a time when promotion to the higher leagues was seen as key to the club's survival."

John Blackwell, formerly the club's general manager, Ian Lee, formerly club accountant, and Brian James, formerly the director and payroll manager all deny one charge of conspiring to cheat the public revenue between 1997 and 2002.

The court was told that two others, Boston's manager Steve Evans, and the former chairman Patrick Malkinson, had pleaded guilty. The trial is expected to last six weeks. Hicks described the method behind the scam as simple. "Wages to various players and staff which attract tax were disguised as out-of-pocket expenses which do not attract tax. Various fees and bonuses, such as signing-on fees or winning bonuses, went undisclosed when they should have been declared."

The court was told that end-of-year tax returns submitted by the club, that were repeatedly paraded as accurate and true, were, in fact, "false and dishonestly so."

Boston enjoyed remarkable success during the four-year period, Hicks told the court. In 1997 the club was fourth from bottom in the Unibond League, with attendance of around 400 and part-time players. By 2001, the club won the Nationwide Conference and was promoted to the third division, later renamed League Two, of the Football League, with attendances now averaging 4,000. Hicks said the guilty pleas by Evans and Malkinsona who will be sentenced later, meant there was "no dispute a conspiracy between at least two persons was in existence".

He said they had played a major part in the criminal enterprise and their names would feature largely in the case. Malkinson became club chairman in 1997 before leaving the club, returning for a second stint from July 2000 until March 2002. Evans was manager from October 1998, until he was suspended by the Football Association four years later. He returned to the job in 2004. The trial continues.

Source: euFootball.BIZ © Copyright 2006 - All rights reserved.