Court told football star Nolan was inadvertent ‘middle man’
FORMER Premier League footballer Kevin Nolan was an inadvertent “middle man” in a Christmas hamper con in which West Ham players and staff lost thousands of pounds, a court has heard.
The ex-West Ham midfielder told Snaresbrook Crown Court he had been passed the details of a hamper salesman called “Mark Kingston” by a nightclub manager friend of his.
The 34-year-old paid £920 for two Harrods hampers and 25 bottles of champagne which he never received.
Stephen Ackerman, 48, is accused of defrauding potential England football manager Sam Allardyce and 12 other former and current West Ham players and staff, including England striker Andy Carroll, out of thousands of pounds by selling them hampers which were never delivered.
Mr Ackerman, of Loughton, Essex, denies 18 fraud charges, with the proceeds amounting to a total of around £61,560.
It is alleged he appeared at the club’s training ground on December 12, 2014 using the alias Mark Kingston.
Mr Nolan, who was West Ham captain at the time, told the court he was given the details of Mr Kingston by Scott Cummings, who runs the Club 195 bar in Epping.
He said: “He made me aware of him and I passed his details on to (player liaison officer) Tim De’Ath. It was a fella called Mark.
“Basically, it was just that Mark sold luxury hampers and he would like to come into the training ground – that’s something which is quite common in our place, round Christmas time we have a lot of people come in.”
Asked by prosecutor Richard Milne if he was a “sort of a middle man”, Mr Nolan replied: “Yes”.
Mr Nolan added that Mr De’Ath was responsible for handling the arrangements.
“Normally he’d do a vetting process and make sure everything was fine,” he said.
The court also heard that former West Ham defender Joey O’Brien paid £1,200 on a credit card for two hampers and 20 bottles of Laurent Perrier rose champagne on December 12.
He said he noticed that two additional payments totalling £780 had left his account when he checked his statement several days later.
He said: “I did not know anything about those on my bank statement until I checked.
“I knew they were not made by me so I contacted the bank to cancel the card.”
He described the salesman as “smartly dressed” but said he only spoke to him for a few minutes.
The trial continues.