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Former Wrexham FC director jailed for fraud

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13th Nov 2013
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The world of professional football continues to feature prominently in courtrooms around the world. Nick Huber reports on two recent cases.

A chartered accountant who used to be a director at Wrexham FC has been jailed for 16 months for a £60,000 fraud.

Appearing at Kingston Crown Court last month, Paul Retout pleaded guilty to committing fraud by abuse of position.

The charges arose from false invoices worth £59,806 he submitted in 2007 and 2008 to London-based Quadrangle Group, where he was a partner, the BBC and other media reported.

The invoices should have been authorised by another partner, but the signatories had assumed that they were properly authorised, Walesonline.co.uk reported.

Retout had joined the group in 1989 as a financial controller and risen through the finance team ranks. During this time, he was also became a director at Wrexham Football Club, but left that position in 2010.

In mitigation the court heard that Retout had claimed for work he had not done during a "chaotic" time after he had relocated to Ruthin in north Wales.

"You were not acting dishonestly from the outset, but you became dishonest when you later invoiced and obtained money for work you had not done and for which you were not entitled, money obtained from the partnership," Judge Nicholas Jones told Retout, according to the BBC.

A civil legal case with Quadrangle has been settled, and Retout has also made part-repayment of the defrauded money, the BBC reported.

More Tax cases pending

Meanwhile, In Munich, the former West Germany striker and Bayern Munich general manager Uli Hoeness is due to go on trial for tax evasion in March. As previously reported, the 61-year-old turned himself in to the authorities over an undeclared Swiss bank account and was charged with tax evasion in July.

Hoeness, who was elected as president of the football club in 2009, will remain in his role while the case continues and vowed to clear his name.

"I'll work hard over the next four months to ensure our arguments convince the court," he was quoted as saying by the Telegraph. "I'm very surprised that the authorities have not accepted our self-denunciation."

Current Argentina and Barcelona striker Lionel Messi and former Argentina star Diego Maradona are under investigation for tax discrepancies in Spain and Italy respectively.

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