Charles Sale: Cardiff City tax story results in arrest of former IT head

13 January 2010 00:18
Cardiff City chairman Peter Ridsdale has called in the police aftera Sunday newspaper published a story relating to a £2.7million tax billfrom HM Revenue and Customs.[LNB]Ridsdale alleges that the highly sensitive club information was abreach of his and the club's privacy as it could only have beenobtained from a private email account. [LNB]Brought in the police: Ridsdale[LNB]   More from Charles Sale... Charles Sale: Ice-bound Anfield still open for stadium tours12/01/10 Charles Sale: Fiszman's fight is worry for Arsenal10/01/10 Charles Sale: C4 pip the Beeb to Paralympic rights08/01/10 EXCLUSIVE: Channel 4 pips BBC to host the London Paralympics in 201208/01/10 Charles Sale: Retirement? Andrew Flintoff inundated with lucrative offers away from cricket06/01/10 Charles Sale: Sir Alex Ferguson's hairdryer after beating Manchester City06/01/10 Charles Sale: Sheffield steeled for court battle04/01/10 Charles Sale: Andrew Cole's tribute to his old enemy Teddy Sheringham18/12/09 VIEW FULL ARCHIVE The police probe that followedled to the arrest of Cardiff's former head of IT, Berwyn Jay, onsuspicion of the computer theft. He was released on bail pendingfurther inquiries.[LNB]Jay was sacked by Cardiff last summer after admitting he hadpreviously been paid by the News of the World for stories about theclub. A Cardiff Police spokesperson said: 'A 40-year-old man has beenarrested on suspicion of unlawfully procuring data under the dataprotection act.'[LNB]Meanwhile, in a separate matter, further internal upheaval atCardiff has seen secretary Jason Turner suspended following the allegedrelease of other confidential financial matters.[LNB]Ridsdale has assured fans about the long-term stability of Cardiff,who moved into a new stadium this season and he says the tax bill willbe paid by the end of the month.[LNB] Lawrence Dallaglio, whose Christmas book of rugby anecdotes was one of the best-sellers in a depressed market, has the perfect platform to promote his Six Nations cycle slam to raise £1m for charity a 1,740-mile ride between Rome and Edinburgh that takes in all the other international rugby venues in Paris, Dublin, Cardiff and London. [LNB]Dallaglio has an expanded role as a BBC pundit during the tournament. Former footballers Les Ferdinand and Lee Dixon are riding the first leg from Rome to San Remo.[LNB] England coach Fabio Capello's assistant Franco Baldini will take in seven matches during five days at the Africa Cup of Nations, including watching World Cup group opponents Algeria twice as well as all the other teams who could face England in South Africa. [LNB]Yet despite Baldini's trip, it's a surprise, given the size and cost of the Capello-led set-up, that England did not have a scouting representative at Algeria's opening shock defeat by Malawi.[LNB] England No 3 batsman Jonathan Trott has managed to upset the South Africans more than any other player during the current Test series with the time he takes to settle himself at the crease before every ball. Yet ironically it was Trott himself who took anger-management lessons not so long ago to improve his own temperament while batting.[LNB] Legal team: Redknapp[LNB]Harry fields top team Spurs manager Harry Redknapp, who will face the same charge of 'cheating the public revenue' this week that the Crown Prosecution Service lodged yesterday against former Portsmouth chairman Milan Mandaric, has assembled a formidable legal team to fight his case.[LNB]They are led by criminal fraud specialists in top lawyer Ian Burton and QC John Kelsey-Fry, who are known as the best in their field. They represented champion Flat jockey Kieren Fallon when race-fixing charges against him collapsed at trial through lack of prosecution evidence.[LNB]The tax evasion charges being brought against the ex-Portsmouth trio of Peter Storrie, Mandaric and Redknapp follow from a football corruption inquiry ongoing since 2006 that has produced no scalps so far. Burton and Kelsey-Fry will try to dismantle the City of London Police and CPS football investigations in the same way they did so successfully in the Fallon case. Spurs regard the case as a personal matter for Redknapp.[LNB] The most bizarre promotion running on Sky Sports must be the cricket one featuring Ian Botham, David Gower, Michael Atherton, Nasser Hussain and David Lloyd supposedly making a mess of preparing a meal in a fancy Johannesburg restaurant, suggesting they don't know about cooking but they understand cricket. [LNB]Yet the five know exactly what goes on in a kitchen as they spend as much time on tour wining and fine-dining some of them a lot more as they do at the cricket.[LNB] [LNB]  

Source: Daily_Mail