Ill winds blow after brass band ‘sabotage’

POLICE are investigating a “deliberate attempt” to sabotage a brass band’s progress in a national competition after fake emails were sent to try to disqualify them.

Detectives believe the culprit may be someone within the brass band community.

Lofthouse Brass Band, from West Yorkshire, was deemed to have used ineligible players after winning the Yorkshire Brass Band Championships fourth section.

They were later exonerated but a bogus email account had been used to remove registered players. The national fraud and cyber crime reporting centre Action Fraud has been informed.

The Wakefield-based band, conducted by Andrew Whitaker, won the title at St George’s Hall in Bradford on March 5 and qualified for the National Brass Band Championships of Great Britain.

The Yorkshire Brass Band Championships confirmed emails were sent in Mr Whitaker’s name ahead of the competition removing several players from the registration list. A full list of performers has to be sent two weeks before the contest.

Mr Whitaker said further emails were sent in his name after the competition to rival bands telling them they “had won with ineligible players”.

He said: “I don’t think anyone in the brass band community has experienced this before.

“On contest day at registry, they checked our players against a list and found three on there that we didn’t have registered.

“We went on stage knowing there may be a chance we would be disqualified.”

He added: “I was gutted. It took a bit of the shine off the win because we had to prove we knew nothing about it.”

Peggy Tomlinson, secretary of the Yorkshire Brass Band Championships, said: “We thoroughly investigated and the band have been fully exonerated, the result of the contest stands.

“It’s quite unbelievable that somebody would go to such lengths and do this to a band.”