Two football players, Moses Swaibu and Delroy Facey, were today convicted at Birmingham Crown Court for their part in a conspiracy to commit bribery by fixing football matches in the Conference Premier Division.
Today’s verdicts follow the earlier convictions of Chann Sankaran and Krishna Ganeshan, business men from Singapore, who were central figures in the plot to bribe UK footballers to engineer the results that they needed in order for their associates to win money on bets. A football player by the name of Michael Boateng was also convicted last year for his part in the conspiracy.
Andy Young, specialist prosecutor in the Crown Prosecution Service Organised Crime Division, said:
“Delroy Facey acted as the middleman in this conspiracy, sourcing players who would be willing to fix matches. When he played professional football, he earned good money, being paid over £65,000 in 2010/11. But by the time of his arrest, he was no longer playing professionally and was earning considerably less.
“The jury heard how recordings made by an officer from the National Crime Agency captured Michael Boateng conspiring to give away a penalty to Moses Swaibu, a conversation facilitated by Facey on behalf of the professional fixer Krishna Ganeshan. Swaibu also advises Facey on how to approach fixing, including bribing referees, and on one occasion suggests that a match could be lost by two or three goals.
“These and other recordings provided vital evidence which showed the men had a settled intent to make an agreement about engineering the results of matches, in return for money, a reality.”
