Football pros in £5m sport fraud jailed
TWO ex-professional footballers have been jailed for a £5million bogus sports leadership scam.
In 2011 the Daily Mirror exposed Mark Aizlewood 58, and Paul Sugrue, 56, for vowing to help school and college kids gain an NVQ in activity leadership and provide full-time training in football coaching.
But hundreds of the students on their books did not even exist and many lived far away from the scheme.
They were convicted of conspiracy to commit fraud and yesterday Aizlewood was sentenced to six years and Sugrue seven.
Judge David Tomlinson at Southwark crown court said “eye-watering sums of Government money” were involved in this “simply shameful exploitation”.