A fraudster who conned a football charity out of £200,000 has been jailed for almost three years.
Fraser White, 24, of Maidenhead, Berkshire, defrauded the Football Foundation using inside knowledge gained from his roles as director of a football academy and as a ticketing executive at Reading FC, Reading Crown Court heard.
From June 2020 to February 2023, White made 34 false grant applications to the foundation on behalf of real football clubs, the court found.
White, who was last week sentenced to 32 months in prison, created false documents to support his claims and opened 10 bank accounts to syphon funds into.
He was awarded £199,433 by the foundation which he spent on a variety of luxury items and experiences, including tickets to Qatar to watch the football World Cup.
Robert Sullivan, chief executive of the Football Foundation, said: “I would like to credit the brilliant work of the team at the foundation.
“Whilst balancing our ambition to quickly get money out to communities, they did notice anomalies in applications.
“These anomalies were investigated further and with legal guidance, we started building a case.
“I am happy to write today that the individual involved has been brought to justice.
“It’s been a challenging incident but I am pleased that our process and systems have done their job.
“We will not tolerate fraud and we will take action wherever we see it.”
Sullivan said that because of funds assigned to these fraudulent claims the “real victims” were the many clubs “in the heart of their communities… who have lost out on funding”.