Fallon is charged in race-fixing inquiry
Horse Racing Betting System
TOP jockey Kieren Fallon was today (Monday, 03 July) charged with conspiracy to defraud as part of an investigation into alleged horse racing corruption.
Fallon was charged when he answered bail at Bishopsgate police station in London in connection with a City of London Police inquiry.
Six-time champion jockey Fallon, based at Cowlinge, near Newmarket, is one of 28 people due to answer bail today (Monday, 03 July) for suspected involvement in race fixing.
Fallon arrived at the police station at 9.15am, wearing jeans and a dark top, and slipped inside the front entrance without speaking to waiting reporters.
He left the station 20 minutes later and was driven away in a silver Mercedes.
Fallon, 41, made no comment as he rushed out of the building. He will appear before magistrates on Monday, July 17.
He had flown in from Ireland after winning the Irish Derby yesterday (Sunday, 02 July).
The 28 leading racing figures, who include an unnamed person from Newmarket, are suspected of conspiracy to defraud.
Former racing syndicate director Miles Rodgers of Silkstone, South Yorks, has been charged with conspiracy to defraud customers of Betfair, the internet exchange, and an offence under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
A police statement read: "Two people have today (Monday, 03 July) been charged with offences relating to allegations of fixing the outcome of horse races between December 1, 2002 and September 2, 2004 and moneylaundering as part of the City of London police's long-running investigation into horse racing corruption. All those charged will appear at City of London Magistrates' Court on Monday, July 17.
All those on bail, 28 in total, are due to answer bail today (Monday, 03 July)."
Fallon was arrested near his home in September 2004 when the investigations first became public.
He has protested his innocence, describing the allegations as a "complete joke".
But despite the cloud hanging over racing for almost two years, Mark Tompkins, Newmarket Trainers Federation chairman, said the investigation was not having a negative effect on Newmarket.
He said: "It has been going on for years. Everybody just gets on with their everyday business.
"There has been no negative effect, this will not affect us at all.
The investigation - codenamed Operation Krypton - was launched in January 2004 and is estimated to have cost more than '1.5 million.
The police swoops followed irregular betting on Betfair - it passed records from its sophisticated tracking of betting patterns to the Jockey Club who in turn called in the City of London Police, which has the country's largest financial fraud investigation team.
' Jockeys Fergal Lynch and Darren Williams have also been charged with conspiracy to defraud. Also charged was Joanne Richardson, of Thurgoland, South Yorkshire - believed to be a partner of Rodgers
* who is accused of an offence under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
KIEREN Fallon has been champion jockey six times and has ridden three Derby winners, but his career has been dogged by controversy.
In 1994, he was banned for seven days for hitting fellow jockey Chris Rutter with his whip and then later the same year was banned for six months for violent or improper conduct after a clash with another jockey.
Also in 1999 he lost his job as a stable jockey to Henry Cecil following a newspaper report he was having a relationship with the trainer's wife. Fallon denied the accusation and his claim for unfair dismissal was settled out of court.
Last year he admitted in a newspaper article to having a problem with alcohol and undergoing a 30-day programme of treatment.
Four times in his career he has ridden 200 winners in a year - in 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2003, when he also triumphed in the Derby on Kris Kin.
A Jockey Club inquiry was launched in 2004 after allegations published in the News of the Worldfollowing an undercover investigation. The newspaper alleged Fallon told undercover journalists before a race at Lingfield eventual winner Rye would beat his mount Ballinger Ridge.
Fallon was found guilty of not riding out for first place and served a 21-day suspension for the offence.
Fallon, 41, was born in Crusheen in the Republic of Ireland and has three children with former jockey Julie Bowker, although they were reported to have split earlier this year.
|
