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Former football directors jailed over fraud crimes

Published on 22 Jul 2009 under category: legal

Former senior members of staff at Derby County Football Club have been jailed for fraud crimes.

Northampton Crown Court heard that Andrew Mackenzie, the company's former finance director, Murdo Mackay, ex-director of football and Jeremy Keith, who had the role of chief executive, claimed a "secret commission" during the takeover of the business.

This refers to the 2003 transaction in which Mr Mackay and Mr Mackenzie bought the club for £3.

The court heard that the men received payments of £125,000 plus value added tax which were not sanctioned by the Derby County board.

Mr Mackay and Mr Mackenzie were sentenced to three years in prison for these fraud crimes, while Mr Keith was handed an 18-month term for false accounting.

Recently, figures from KMPG showed serious fraud crimes for the first six months of 2009 have reached a 21-year high.

The study found there have been 163 instances of these types of cases in UK courts between January and June.