Thetownend.com

Just spotted the following story on the Advertiser site from last week.

http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/11315861.Football_officials_on_major_fraud_charges/

One of the women who's been charged is a former Swindon Advertiser Grass Roots Unsung Hero award winner, Margaret Rivers.

Don Rogers was singing her and the other woman who's been in courts praises last year when the Advertiser ran another story about that league having management rows.

http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/10460248.I_am_disgusted_at_FA___s_treatment__says_legend/

A mate of mine who referees in that Wilts kids league told me that Don resigned as President of the kids league last week - just before the fraud case court appearance (cant see anything online though - so might be bollocks.)

Does anyone know what the fuck is going on?

It all sounds really fucking fishy to me.

Anyone know anything?

Only seen published in the papers. They are very serious allegations aren't they. Not what I thought would end up being incompetence, the article reads as premeditated fraud.

Don wasn't at the league winners presentations on Sunday so maybe he is no longer involved ( but maybe he was not available for the presentation)

All the dodgy ones are from Shaw fc. Don had a team there and has done very well out of the league via his shop selling kit,trophies,etc.

I remember Rivers from when I was a kid, she's been around 20 years or so!

I see this shitty state of affairs reared it's ugly head again today, this time in Swindon Crown Court.

http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/11366928.Former_youth_football_officials_appear_in_court_over___200k_fraud_claims/?ref=var_0

Whoever these pond-life, skanky fuckers are, they stand accused of fiddling over £200,000 out of kids football between them, which is a scary amount of money.

That's 1/5th of a million fucking quid that's actually been stolen, as at least one of them has entered a guilty plea today.

Doing some digging around on this in the last few weeks and it's fucking fascinating stuff, all happening right on our doorstep!

From what IO'm told, there was a proper pitch-fork and burning-torches posse got together last year to oust the then new Chairman of the league when he and Wembley officials got wind of what was going on. Presumably Don Rogers comments in the paper at the time were aimed at keeping some credibility for him and them, but looking back, it wasn't a good move with £200K going missing and a rake of shit publicity going around with Don's previously good name on it.

A little bird tells me that Don fell out with the same chairman bloke who was also his first team coach at Shaw under 15's as Dons not a qualified coach (that surprised me as well!) Same geezer was hounded out of Shaw with no warning by Don, Rivers and Prictor.

According to the bird, Don stood to lose revenue when the FA started snooping around as he was the league main supplier, so called in someone called Stuart Morgan - a director of Brinkworth Watson Fuels / World Fuel Services Corp according to linkedin - to sort the chairman out as he refused to budge.

Don and the Watson Fuels bloke went to Wembley to complain about the chairman and about one of the FA's rules bods treating their friends (Rivers and Prictor) badly.

The chairman finally went and Watson fuels bloke took the job and told the league that Prictor and Rivers deserved medals for their services to football, publically slated the Wilts FA and the FA, but when the police started poking around, Watson Fuels bloke suddenly dissapeared then mysteriously resigned.

Plod have done a real thorough job of finding out what went on, interviewed a load of people and made dawn arrests when they lifted the cunts currently in the dock.

I'm baffled as to why it's all been kept so fucking quiet to be honest as it sounds like a brilliant soap opera in the making!!! :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

Some of you fuckers must be able to corroborate whats been going on with this, yeah?

This "Watson Fuels bloke" is the son of former Swindon player Keith Morgan and him and Keith were the main men behind the very successful Ferndale-Rodbourne youth set up. Stuart  - who I know well - was at one time a Wilts FA councillor and a decent player himself.  I have not spoken to Stuart for a long time now as all my connections with local football finished some years ago.  Stuart - along with Don - was one of the driving forces into forming the league that is now being dragged through the courts when the Swindon and District League were no longer interested in supporting youth football.

Ahh, some flesh on the bones about one of them then. Thanks for that Ronnie.

Keith Morgan was a bit of a legend in his day I'm told. Reg would probably know better as he's one of the more senior TEF'rs amongst us. Probably why Stuart Morgan stepped in to help The Don then seing as his dad played in the same team.

Doesn't explain why Morgan suddenly dissapeared or resigned though (I'm told he was Vice President as well as the Chairman) or why The Don resigned as the league President a couple of weeks ago?

I'm pretty sure my neighbours kid plays for a Ferndale team so I'll ask him next time I see him, see if he knows anything.

I read the Advertiser this morning and the story is pretty comprehensive. The Prictor woman is going to do a couple of years stretch for a fraud offence on that scale as she's already pleaded guilty. Not sure about the others, but I wouldn't like to be in their shoes.

Don Rogers and his family must be so fucking embarrassed to have been caught up with shit like that. They have a real family based business there that almost certainly relies upon his good name and standing in the town - I have no doubt that anyone else running a dated little shop like that in a shit-hole area wouldn't have lasted for anywhere near as long as he has.

Thinking about it, the whole amateur football scene seems to be a bit dodgy in the Swindon area. Didn't Mike Benson leave the Wilts FA under a dark cloud a couple of years ago?

And I don't think STFC affiliate to Wilts any more, they go straight to the FA - hence no Wilts Premier Shield games.

Tinpot fucking town ;)

Unrelated to this but I have a distinct memory of Stuart Morgan and his name stuck with me for it. He reffed a game I played in, must be 18 or so years ago. He totally ruined it to be frank. I've never seen a game reffed that way prior or post that match. Basically he took the putting a name on it rule to extreme. Unless players called their own name for absolutely everything he gave a free kick. By everything I mean everything. No other words could be spoken and it was farcical. At the time he was apparently newly qualified and got absolute pelters from us he was diabolical. I hope he changed after that and fortunately I never saw him officiate a game again.

BBC saying that those thieving cunts were up in Crown Court again today, well 3 of them anyway.

Margaret Rivers, her old man and Karen Prictor. All 3 plead guilty. Two women to fraud and stealing money from kids league and will be sentenced at a later date, old man for recieving. Total cash gone missing has to be proved by plod and CPS, but between £60-200+K

Kevin Prictor pleads not guilty and will stand trial later.

A bit more digging over the last weeks and months since the last court appearance has turned up a few more bits of the puzzle, as well as revealing that Prictor and Rivers fucked Don Rogers over while they were fiddling the money.

They allegedly sold Don a pup to cover up their thieving, which he was gullible enough to believe and he spoke out against the FA on their behalf, only to find out later that they were actually full of shit and were thieving money from the league while he was the gullible president (who also just happened to be the major ball and trophy supplier and a cheque co-signatory).

By the time Don found out that they'd fucked him over, he'd already done irevocable damage to the his ex-friend who was the Chairman that was at the time leading the stand against the soon-to-be ousted thieving pair of cunts.

I heard that some pretty nasty threats of violence were made towards the chairman - threats to have his legs broken, his house being done over were all bandied about.

This is some serious shit here!

The Don and his family are savage as fuck about it all and there is rumoured to be a finger of blame being waggled in the direction of Stuart Morgan, as he's being blamed for Don being painted in a bad light after Don brought him in to advise him and to help oust the Chairman.

Apparently, as Morgan was a well known local football man - bourne out by the comments earlier about him being a referee etc - he was repeatedly warned when he took over as Chairman that he was out of his depth and was backing the wrong side, but wouldn't have it. He backed Don Rogers and bought into the Rivers and Prictor bullshit, which ended up costing him dearly.

You honestly couldn't make all this shit up. It sounds like the fucking keystone cops, everyone running around with money going missing left right and centre.

A couple of thieving washerwomen, Don Rogers protecting the dollar for his family business and backing a load of fucking criminals and at the same time getting hoodwinked by them.

The son of another ex-Town star gets involved, helps out the Don only to find that he's also been fucked over for his trouble and watches his own credibility exit stage-left.

And this is grass roots kids football. Where the fuck were the FA when all this was going on?

While I despise the thieving cunts that thieved money from kids football, Don Rogers and whoever Stuart Morgan is don't come out of this smelling of roses. It sounds like they haven't got an ounce of fucking integrity between them, have questionable character judgement at best, and really should not be involved in kids football.

Anyone know what the custodial tariff is likely to be for either £60k or £200+K worth of fiddling?

They'll get a suspended sentence...

unlikely...

What a mess. Really thought it was going to be a case of local people meaning well but being incompetent.

Was clear this was not true pretty quickly. Fraudulent scum.

It's amazing deltaincline can write all that and yet not link to the story.

It should be between 3 to 6 years, but the judge has the final say.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-29570486

Can remember talk of shenanigans years back.
At the time my eldest was playing for Ferndale Rodbourne and looking back,Shaw fc, whom Margaret Rivers was connected with,had some of the best facilities in the league.

Think delta's been a bit harsh on the local/national FA here as it was their intervention that forced this evil pair out and that was when the fraud unravelled. Although neither would have been involved at all (or even known there was an issue) if it hadn't been for the determination of Andy Ratcliffe (a former colleague in the Trust) who was the only person prepared to stand up to them (and as delta says, took dog's abuse for doing so), exposed some of their appalling practices and stood firm in the face of some appalling abuse from them and their allies to ensure the right thing was done. Take a bow, Andy, you've done a sterling job for football in Swindon (again!)

The whole situation with the league and the total bias towards Shaw Fc always left a bitter taste and was remarked about and common knowledge for years.
Even before this fraud was known about, those two women were well known and disliked by other clubs. Very up themselves and unpleasant.
If Don Rogers was Joe Bloggs and not a legend in the town he would be getting major stick too I think. The whole thing stinks.

Pretty sure Margarets son was in my year and played for Shaw. He's been very quiet on Facebook recently... Pretty shocking actually as I think my mum and dad knew her really well.

Tbf, they won pretty much everything in my year group but they were genuinely the best team!

It would have been still going on if it was not for Andy, they had an inner circle all based at Shaw FC that was very difficult to argue with or you just got fine after fine . I was chairman and Secretary for Lambourn Juniors and had a few run ins with them over petty fines which I seemed to be shelling out on a weekly basis it looks like a lot of them were not finding there way into the NWFL funds.

http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/11530476.Football_club_duo_face_jail_for_fraud/

Link from the Adver today

There's lots of stuff coming out now about numerous clubs handing over money for pitches and transfer fees where the money subsequently disappeared. 

Shaw FC no longer exist, although I believe a number of the teams are now playing under the banner of Lydiard Millicent.

It will be a travesty if they don't go to prison.

Just read the Advertiser link posted up by Lambourn Red - thanks for that LR :clap:

I'm now wondering why Margaret Rivers has still got their coveted Community Award attached to her name??

Having entered a guilty plea in court last week, it's game over for her now and I believe they should immediately strip her of the award and make it known in public, otherwise any future winner will be tainted and the whole thing will be devalued, assuming its still being awarded every year?.

It will sell more papers for the Advertiser as they can publicise it themselves and most people apart from friends of the thieves would agree with their sentiments.

Mind you, maybe that will prompt Don Rogers to speak out on their behalf against the idea in the Advertiser, again....... :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

If the £200,000 fraud is proven to be right, and its not £60,000 as claimed, I'd also like to see the Advertiser going after and questioning the ex league chairman and FA approved referee Kevan Williams, who is coincidentally, another good mate of.... you guessed it, Mr Don Rogers (you couldn't honestly make this shit up)

Because they've fiddled £200,000 out of the league, it must have been going on for more than a few years and Williams was puffing his chest out around the town as the chairman for years before that, and with the two thieves working for him at the time (images and stories all over the net).

Not suggesting that this Kevan Williams character was in on the women's fraud or the theft of money, but he must surely be responsible or at least accountable to the FA if it was going on right under his nose as it looks like it was? If not, who takes the rap apart from the criminals above?

Anyway, if there are any Journo's at all left at the Advertiser offices nowadays, get that community award back pronto and strip the thieving bitch of the title :nod:

Other than by association, is there anything to implicate Don Rogers, beyond supporting two women he thought were doing a good job? Apologies in advance if those on here know more than me (which is nothing).... and more than the police.

Don was very naive and left himself open to criticism from the FA as he was a signatory on the NWFL account yet a large % of the funds were paid to him for trophies, match balls which every team HAD to purchase 2 each season. When I think back at all the fund raising we did at Lambourn over the years to keep youth football going and how much was being paid to the North Wilts League it makes me angry and i would imagine that would be the same for most of the clubs.

But, not being the treasurer or in finance, he wouldn't have signed off on the accounts in the sense he was verifying their accuracy, was he? I'm only saying, it's a very long way to go from 'clubs must use Don Rogers Sports' (face it, it's him, Dave Whelan or Mike Ashley that gets the money) to "you've committed, conspired or turned a blind eye to a calculated fraud". If I was siphoning money off as these women were, I'd be damn sure nobody else knew or could know about it.

Of course I'd rather his reputation isn't tarnished, but it seems from this thread, unless there really are reasons to believe otherwise, that his reputation has taken a battering purely by association. That wouldn't be right.

I never said that he was involved only stated that the FA in their statement on the matter before it ever got to a criminal matter reported that he was naive being a signatory and being the single biggest customer . I think Don would be embarrassed by the whole affair as he and others were very vocal in their support for the 2 women before the real facts were known and it became a criminal case. I was at the AGM about 18 months ago where the Wilts FA presented their findings but at that time there was no mention of the scale of the fraud as they said it was an ongoing investigation.

Well, it's a little more than that (although a hell of a long way short of anything like conniving in the criminality). Even when it was very obvious they were bad 'uns and that something was very seriously wrong, Don backed them all the way. Including, sadly, participating in some of the very unpleasant vilification of Andy Ratcliffe that the Rivers/Prictor camp were encouraging as they tried to smear the man who they perhaps realised would be their undoing.

So while he's certainly not guilty of any legal misdoing, he does come out of all this with his reputation slightly tarnished, if only for exercising some extremely poor judgement and condoning some pretty unpleasant behaviour, if only by inaction. I say this with no pleasure as I like Don and I think to some extent he was also a victim of these unpleasant women and their acolytes. He was, perhaps, the Sir Seton Wills to their Mike Diamandis.

That woman in the article has a fucking massive hooter

(http://allthingsd.com/files/2012/09/the-end-old-movie.jpg)

Didn"t  Kev Williams manage the N Wilts u14 rep team a few years back?

I see from Swindon Crown Court listings that the kiddy thieves are up in front of the beak again tomorrow at 10.00 AM sharp. .

http://www.courtserve.net/courtlists/current/crown/swind_T141107.02.htm

Anyone got any idea if this is the exciting bit, when the female contingent get sent to Dartmoor, where some big, fat, shaven headed Aussie dungaree-wearing lesbian is quietly waiting to fuck them both with a bristled bog brush, and the blokes go to Strangeways and get fucked up the shitter during their first trip to the showers, while the screws all look the other way??

Or have I been watching too many Prison movies...?

Certainly sounds like you've been watching some kind of, ahem, "specialist" movie, probably when the wife and kids are out....

Just bought an Advertiser on the long walk home from Stratton.

Page 9 has a detailed story about kids money thief Karen Prictor who's now been nicked by the police for attempting to get a new passport on the ruse that hers was lost at home, when the reality was that she'd had her original one confiscated by the police when she first got arrested for stealing £250K from the North Wilts Kids League with Margaret Rivers, her husband Phil Rivers and her old man.

She's been arrested again trying to fraudulently get a replacement passport, has spent a night in Swindon nick for her trouble and has had to be electronically tagged on bail, which presumably also means a curfew (at least her neighbours milk bottles will be fairly safe outside their homes).

According to the Advertiser, her brief is pleading that Prictor has lost her job because of the fraud investigation and is now on benefits. She thought she'd take her family away to Mexico in October because shes worried about things falling apart as a result of the fraud, all of which rather begs the question as to how the fuck some scumbag like that can even afford to go on holiday, let along take her family to Mexico while facing a jail sentence for stealing kids football money!

I still find it staggering that Don Rogers and co are mixed up with disgusting individuals like these. The more that comes out, the smellier the whole fucking saga seems to be. This Prictor woman sounds like someone off the TV series Shameless. How the fuck was she ever allowed to run kids football, let alone befriend and become a business associate of a respected businessman and celebrity like Don Rogers?

Anyone know when the main court trial is going to be held?

This story is not online btw, hence the chapter and verse for you news-starved / out of town fuckers.

don, rightly or wrongly, has come in for a bit of criticism for basically having a monopoly on supplying local kids teams sporting goods. such a shame.

when all this broke I kind of thought it would be down to incompetent bookkeeping. obviously not.

If Don ends up in prison what wing do you think he'll be on?

I laughed...and felt bad about it...

http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/13346557.Crooked_youth_football_boss_and_her_husband__lived_like_kings___court_hears/

Some more coverage in today's Paper as the court case resumes.

How on earth the Mr Prictor claims he had no knowledge is beyond me his missus had a £16k a year job!!

 "In 2009 more than £30,000 went into their account, with more than £43,000 in 2010, £50,000-plus in 2011, and more than £56,000 in 2012", I remember being chairman of Lambourn Juniors FC during this period and shelling out cheques like peanuts to these guys they were fining us for everything it now becomes apparent why. It is hard enough trying to keep a local kids football club running at a reasonable cost it just sickens me to think that all the fund raising we were doing was in part financing their lifestyle.

Fucking scumbags all four of them. Hope they throw away the key

Not like you to go all Daily Mail. Did they round up the kids and gas them?

38k PPI claim???  Fuck me how much debt were they in?

No, they stole money from kids and volunteers who put in huge amounts of their own time so kids can play football, treated those volunteers and kids like shit, and victimised anyone who dared speak out against them - including LR from the sounds of it. Leagues like this are (or are supposed to be) not for profit concerns for the benefit of the kids playing in them, this lot effectively rinsed a kids' charity for their own benefit. They're fucking scum the lot of them and deserve everything they get.

well said

Well of course I agree with all that, and I understand there is a personal axe to grind, but I reserve throwing away the key for mass murderers, possibly. A short custodial sentence accompanied by genuine remorse might make these people a benefit to society. Again, possibly.

Oh FFS, it's a turn of phrase. I hope they are severely punished to the maximum extent permitted by law for what I and I believe many others feel is a severe breach of trust and a despicable crime. Happy now?

Even if the did throw away the keys, I'm quite sure they could call a lock-smith if needed anyway.

Il's a lazy Daily Mail turn of phrase. It's the banal and everyday crime of cupidity, but  on this occasion it happened to be in your back yard.

It's stealing from kids. It may well be "banal and everyday" but then to use your own over-exaggeration so, these days, is murder in some parts of the world. One lot of shite behaviour being less shite than some other shite behaviour doesn't make it any less reprehensible or deserving of punishment. They're a bunch of fucking scumbags and I hope the court throws the book at them.

Oh, and if we're doing lazy thinking, then the argument by hyperbole isn't exactly Malcolm Muggeridge is it now?

Just catching up with everything and noticed that one of the cunts - Kevin Prictor - mixed up in this kids football scandal has got off with a not guilty verdict.

This guys wife thieved £200,000+ of kids money over 4 or 5 years and he knew nothing about it as he leaves the whole families finances to her.

Right.

Apart from the obvious response to the verdict and the urge to vomit, this got me thinking about the sort of woman this bloke is married to;

If we accept that he knew fuck all about her activities, how fucking devastating must it have been when he found out what she'd been up to?

To me, that's way worse than finding out the Mrs was having an affair. 4 or 5 years of thieving and he never even had an inkling. Nadda. Fuck all. Not even a sniff.

£200,000 in her purse and the thieving bitch kept it all from him as well. She didn't share a brass fucking farthing with him  :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

Mind, he still loves and trusts her. :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

Apart from doing a lot of internet porn while she's in pokey, he'll have plenty of time to ponder where she's hidden the wonga and why she didn't share some with him......

I can actually see how he may not have known, at least to the point of reasonable doubt that he was in on it. I used to leave our family finances to the Mrs.

But the trust in that relationship  has to have been decimated.

in any case there is no doubt about the despicable way the others have acted..

Yep it's amazing how he didn't question all the holidays she paid for. :hmmm:

The real truth.....He just had a really good solicitor who came up with a "lets play dumb" theory. I can see it now....

Suit: I've just had a cunning plan Pictor Sir.

Pictor: Come, tell me more Quimpleton-Jones.

Quimpleton-Jones(formerly known as Suit): You say you knew nothing.

Pictor: That's ridiculous.

Q-J: No it's not.

Pictor: Well the Mrs is a tough cookie. Could she handle it?

Q-J: Errr..of course (shuffles), well Pictor it's either that or on judgement day i'll be handing you a very large bag of corks!

Knew nothing about it my arse. 

I deal with all the finances in my house, but if we were suddenly able to afford several holidays a year and I was throwing the cash around, my husband would be asking questions.

If Kevin Prictor didn't, then he's obviously thick as two short planks or perhaps he was frightened and under the control of his wife?

Either way, even though he's been found not guilty, he comes out of it looking like a twat.

That was my first thought. And then I read that he's an electrical engineer.

Either he's a good actor, or working as an electrical engineer doesn't require as much intelligence as I thought it did.

prictor got 4 years and the other bird got 2 years 4 months

Justice unfortunately they will only do half of that

If that.

I suspect that he just didn't make the connection!

Got his wires crossed and the whole case turned out to be a shock

Perhaps he'd been off the circuit for a while..

Watt are your on about?

Once they're out, I would imagine most forms of employment and credit will be a non starter. The prison is the calm before the depressing storm when they get out.

This'll certainly bring him back down to earth. He'll have to conduct himself properly and be more resistant. I hope this will bring a surge of cases forward.

There's been a lot of that detail that has come out about this case which I'll write out when I get a few seconds to sit down with it. Welcome news that the pair of putrid excuses for women landed themselves in jail at long last.

Sounds like kids football in Swindon is well shot of a whole load of cunts who were in there either making money, stirring the shit, shagging each other, getting pissed up and causing trouble, inflating their own ego's or were otherwise just creep arsing around Prictor and Rivers, who, it has to be said are probably the ugliest pair of growlers I've seen for many a year.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-33555451

I made the switch from Rivers' beloved Shaw FC to a rival club as an 11 year old... the abuse I got on my return for my new team was shocking. And I was shit at football anyway. Vile person.

I haven't looked at the Advertiser for a week or so. Just wondering if anyone has heard or read any comments from Don Rogers since the courts jailed those thieving kids league women a week or so ago?

A geezer I spoke to last week said that Don got dragged into Gablecross nick for questioning after they got arrested, so I wondered if he might go into print to condemn them or distance himself from the disgusting pair of cunts after they got jailed.

Same old shit online :hmmm: