Ex-footballer says he did not commit fraud, as he was focused on wife’s ordeal

A FORMER football star has spoken of his wife’s suicide as he told a court he was focused on his troubled family life at the time of his alleged involvement in a £5m apprenticeship fraud.

Former Wales international Mark Aizlewood, 57, who played for clubs including Leeds United and Charlton Athletic, told jurors that he had neither the “time” or “inclination” to pull off the scam between 2009 and 2011.

Aizlewood, who was capped 39 times for his country, described how his wife, Penelope, was suffering from alcohol and drug problems, as well as depression, throughout the period.

A jury at Southwark Crown Court was told she took her own life in June last year, more than three years after separating from Aizlewood, who has remarried.

“I genuinely hope nobody ever has to go through it,” Aizlewood said. Aizlewood and Paul Sugrue, 56, who played for clubs including Manchester City, Middlesbrough and Cardiff City, are accused of a plot to steal £5m of public cash intended to fund the training of apprentices, through their business, Luis Michael Training Ltd (LMT).

The pair, along with fellow directors Keith Williams, 45, and Christopher Martin, 53, are alleged to have submitted false accounts to colleges to persuade them to do business with the firm – a provider of football-based apprenticeship schemes for young people.

Jack Harper, 30, who began working with LMT in December 2009, of Southport, Merseyside, is also on trial and denies one charge of conspiracy to commit false representation, an additional count of fraud and one of using a false instrument. Jurors have been told Martin, from Berkshire, has pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation, while Stephen Gooding, 53, of Somerset has admitted one count of the same charge. The case continues.