Neil Hollinshead Jailed for London Welsh RFC Fraud

Following a successful investigation by Surelock on behalf of the RFU and in liaison with
the City of London Police a fraudster who posed as the head of an investment company and was supposedly backed by the Saudi royal family, has been jailed over his purchase of London Welsh rugby club.

Neil Hollinshead duped the owners of London Welsh into selling the club and paying him £350,000 to cover outstanding debts.  In return, he said he would invest £1m a year but the money did not exist.

The 36-year-old, from London, was given seven years at Southwark Crown Court.

Hollinshead targeted the Aviva Premiership club when it hit financial difficulties in 2009.

He paid a nominal £6 for the club’s shares and owned it for a few months until the club was returned to its former owners by a court, and he was declared bankrupt, from which he has not been discharged.

Judge David Higgins said: “It was a disastrous period for the club. It only survived because the original owners and various benefactors continued to fund it to the tune of many hundreds of thousands of pounds.

“It’s plain to me that you produced not one penny of your own, let alone the £1m you promised, and which quite obviously never existed.”

He added: ”You are clearly a man of great moral turpitude – indeed, I am entirely confident that you would do it all again tomorrow if you thought you could get away with it.”

For full story http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-28712229