{"id":26271,"date":"2018-02-27T11:51:41","date_gmt":"2018-02-27T11:51:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/?p=26271"},"modified":"2018-02-27T11:51:41","modified_gmt":"2018-02-27T11:51:41","slug":"ex-bluebirds-become-jailbirds-eye-watering-fraud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2018\/02\/27\/ex-bluebirds-become-jailbirds-eye-watering-fraud\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Bluebirds become jailbirds over \u2018eye-watering\u2019 fraud"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">FORMER Cardiff City players, Mark Aizlewood and Paul Sugrue have been jailed on charges of fraud amounting to \u00a35 million.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Aizlewood, who played at Ninian Park in the mid-1990s, and Sugrue, who played in the 1980s, were sentenced on Monday at Southwark Crown Court alongside four others.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The group were charged at Southwark Crown Court. Aizlewood faces six years for conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation while Sugrue was sentenced to seven years.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Judge David Tomlinson said the apprenticeships scam involved \u201ceye-watering sums of government money\u201d.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cThere was a serious detrimental effect on colleges. It was a shameful exploitation,\u201d he added.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The apprenticeship, under the name Luis Michael Training Ltd, was a government-funded scheme claiming to offer youngsters from deprived backgrounds the chance to earn coaching qualifications through British colleges.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">They offered to provide full-time training as well as work experience and a \u00a395 weekly salary to 3,800 students.<\/span><br \/>\n<iframe class=\"zeen-lazy-load-base zeen-lazy-load\" src=\"about:blank\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/albumizr.com\/a\/-up7\" width=\"700\" height=\"400\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><noscript><iframe src=\"https:\/\/albumizr.com\/a\/-up7\" width=\"700\" height=\"400\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/noscript><em>The brochure advertising the training scheme.<\/em><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">However, the group lied about the number of people enrolled and failed to carry out all of the training as promised. Luis Michael Training claimed money from the UK government for hundreds of students on their books who didn\u2019t even exist.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Money was also claimed for students who were only being given just two to three hours of study a week.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The group were uncovered in 2011 when a whistleblower alerted Gwent Police. In the intervening years, the Serious Fraud Office spent more than four years collecting 5.2 million pieces of evidence and interviewing 600 people.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Following an investigation, Aizlewood, who has 39 Welsh caps to his name, was identified as the leader of the scam and had used his standing within the game to pocket \u00a3424,000.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">When the claims first came to light, Aizlewood was manager at Welsh Premier League club Carmarthen Town. He was sacked on February 5 when he was formally charged.\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A statement released by the club at the time said: \u201cWith Mark Aizlewood being found guilty, his contract with Carmarthen Town will be terminated.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cAs a club, we wish to thank him for his work on the field of play. Carmarthen Town also wish to emphasise that the club were not aware of his activities and were not part of the enquiry.\u201d<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The other men involved \u2013 Keith Williams, Jack Harper, Christopher Martin and Stephen Gooding \u2013 were given sentences ranging from 18 months to five years.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>FORMER Cardiff City players, Mark Aizlewood and Paul Sugrue have been jailed on charges of fraud amounting to \u00a35 million. Aizlewood, who played at Ninian Park in the mid-1990s, and Sugrue, who played in the 1980s, were sentenced on Monday at Southwark Crown Court alongside four others. The group were charged at Southwark Crown Court. Aizlewood faces six years for conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation while Sugrue was sentenced to seven years. Judge David Tomlinson said the apprenticeships [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121,"featured_media":26283,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[94,4],"tags":[5735,142,4049],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-26271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football","category-sport","tag-aizlewood","tag-cardiff-city","tag-carmarthen"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Ex-Bluebirds become jailbirds over \u2018eye-watering\u2019 fraud - The Cardiffian<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2018\/02\/27\/ex-bluebirds-become-jailbirds-eye-watering-fraud\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ex-Bluebirds become jailbirds over \u2018eye-watering\u2019 fraud - The Cardiffian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"FORMER Cardiff City players, Mark Aizlewood and Paul Sugrue have been jailed on charges of fraud amounting to \u00a35 million. Aizlewood, who played at Ninian Park in the mid-1990s, and Sugrue, who played in the 1980s, were sentenced on Monday at Southwark Crown Court alongside four others. The group were charged at Southwark Crown Court. Aizlewood faces six years for conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation while Sugrue was sentenced to seven years. 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