ThaiLatic

It could be a momentous day today with the opening of the new stand. There will be many here who were present for the opening of the Ford Sporting Stand , latterly the Lookers......let's hope it goes better today! We lost 6-0 to Aston Villa

I remember it well. It absolutely chucked it down. It was also the main match on Granada's football show the following day.

You should hear some of the official Thai football club songs. Truly awful.

As NewBlue says, this is one instance of something not really transferring from one culture to another. At least you don't have to endure the spectacle of fans serenading teams before and after the match (regardless of whether they've won, drawn or lost) and chanting the opposition team's name (and not in an ironic way)...yet!

In order to balance things out, I've adopted this http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B010H0SHKM/ref=dm_ws_tlw_trk9as my local club's (Chonburi) unofficial anthem.

International fraudsters with a history of share scamming estimated to have netted at over £1billion have been secretly funding a British football club with the proceeds of their illegal activities.

 

Two directors have been accused of making a hurried departure. But today in a joint statement the man and wife team referred to ' a very small group of individuals' who ' have sought to bully and intimidate us by making completely false allegations and innuendos against us through the convenience of social media.'

 

At the centre of the controversy is Crawley Town Football Club - sponsored by CheckaTrade - where reputation matters.

 

 

Susan and Ian Carter with Mayor of Crawley on a roll after cash injection to club - public source

 

 

 

Director Ian Carter and his wife Susan condemned the attacks on them, believed to be have been made on the clubs's supporters website (ctfc,net) and elsewhere but confirmed that their shareholding would be passed on to another director at a nominal fee - and Susan would be resigning immediately for health reasons.

 

A poster to the site who was accused however stated in reply:

 

 

"The clear weight of both documentary & anecdotal evidence actually gives far greater credence to the theory that:"As the vultures start to circle the club, the Carters have quietly & cowardly scarpered and left a sap in the hot seat"

 

The small town spat however covers a much more serious problem.

 

There appears to be little doubt that cash into the club has been coming from the bosses of 'boiler operations' in the Far East; from scammers who have been targeting the pensions of Britons in the UK.

 

The transfer of the shares to another director Matt Turner owner of design and PR company has been known about for some time in local circles. It is this cash and the flow of cash from Asia which has worried supporters, much more it seems than directors.

 

 

 

Paul Hayward , left and Mickey Doherty,right, bask in glory at Crawley as the 'new owners'

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And now it looks as if the Football Association may be asked to step into investigate the affairs of the club which, it is alleged, started receiving laundered money in 2011 the year it made it to the fifth round of the FA Cup before facing and losing to Manchester United at Old Trafford.

 

After an initial spurt the club has now however been relegated to Football League 2.

 

The matter however should be of much more interest to the City of London Fraud Squad or the National Crime Agency. Both have had complaints relating to the scammers dating back years.

 

The plan by 'boiler room' scammers* in the Far East led by a Birmingham man Paul John Hayward, aka Paul Hilton, aka, Hong Kong Paul, based out of Bangkok and a major player in the city's sex trade, was, perhaps, to build up the club and push it up to the Premier League.

 

But the secret real owners of the club did not want to undergo Football Association ‘fit and proper person’ scrutiny saying they wanted to remain low profile.

 

With the new influx of cash in 2011 the then club manager Steve Evans signed up 23 over a six-month period including Matt Tubbs, for £70,000, Sergio Torres for a record £100,000 and Richard Brodie for an undisclosed but reported fee estimated at £275,000.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One senior member of Crawley FC who threatened to blow the whistle on the conspiracy is reported to have changed his mind after being show photographs of himself in Bangkok in a situation which he would not like his family to have seen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is estimated that each year money laundered from the Far East has paid for all the players’ salaries – and more. Expenditure however still exceeds more income and their club needs more cash from the Orient or from a sale to avoid going into administration – something which has happened twice before.

 

 

The now defunct website for the Eclipse Group

But the cash has been coming from a company called Eclipse Management, based in Bangkok with a parent company in Hong Kong which manages restaurants and night clubs which it had been buying up at a tremendous rate. This maybe because cash for scams was coming in at US$2-3million a month, according to an ex-employee.

 

And Hayward, the man behind Eclipse, is one of the major kings of ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ scams running out of South East Asia. According to sources this week potential 'suckers' in Britain are being currently targeted to invest in at least two scams.

 

Eclipse Management, is nominally headed by Mickey Doherty, a former Hong Kong bar manager.

 

In most countries they would have difficulty accounting for the money flow both in and out.

 

Haywood arrived in Bangkok in his early twenties to work the phones for American scammers. His persuasive telephone manner led to a meteoric rise to 'top loader' in a very short space of time.

 

Hayward is also the man behind the Nana Group, a company which holds the master lease on Bangkok’s busiest sex tourist complex – known as the Nana Entertainment Plaza – a square of lady boy and a-go-go bars with adjoining ‘short time rooms’ for sexual liaisons with prostitutes.

 

The lease was purchased from a Bangkok hotel, manufacturing and property company called the FICO Corporation at over £14million. Hayward claims that he got a bank loan from CIMB bank for this venture - and has had to force sub contractors to put up the prices of drinks and, bar fines (taking a prostitute out of the bar) to pay it back.

 

 

 

 

Hayward has boasted the perfect crime and that the City Fraud Squad could never catch him because: ‘I do not even have a bank account’.

 

He tells his minions the familiar boiler room defence : "If people are prepared to pay cash to someone they have only spoken to over the phone they deserve to lose it."

 

But a group known as the Confederation of Defrauded Victims (CDV), representing some 90 people who between them have lost about US$20 million are currently in dialogue with the banks who allowed the scammers to set up accounts with them to defraud investors from the UK, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, several countries in Asia, and the United States.

 

Some banks are currently co-operating but not HSBC, says the CDV, which was the banker for many boiler room frauds.

 

The CDV has put out an internet warning on HSBC saying the bank ignored KYC (know your customer) and FATF (Financial Action Task Force) recommendations claiming the bank laundered money for a series of boiler rooms in which Hayward and his colleagues were involved - including scams carried out selling Tlway Texco shares and other fraudulent offerings and using vo's (virtual offices) pretending to be financial trading companies called Masahiro International, Jameson West Associates Ltd., Warner Beck Inc., McBain Baxter Holdings Ltd. and Carver Brooks Associates.

 

The CDV points out that none of the boiler rooms could have operated without the co-operation of international banks.

 

Hayward himself is now estimated to be personally worth US$100m-200m – and company checks in Thailand show more than 100 companies linked to him and his colleagues via Thai nominees, including wives and girlfriends.

 

 

Mat Turner (left) of Creative Pod)

 

 

 

 

Pottinger

 

 

 

The transfer of shares by Susan and Ian Carter, who run a small airfreight company - World Transshipment Services - to Matt Turner the boss of a local public relations and IT company Creative Pod, mean that Turner and the clubs chairman David Pottinger now control the club's shares.

 

Pottinger, chairman of the club has much closer links to Hong Kong Paul, or Paul Hilton, as he was referred to in a story in the Guardian, and they have met on their international travels.

 

Below Pottinger is pictured with Stephen Hayward - the father of Paul Hayward in Singapore.

 

 

 

 

 

Paul Hayward's father ran the Dubliner in Hong Kong, while Jon Kealy, of Brinton group notoriety runs the

Dubliner in Bangkok.

 

 

Recently Hayward has made moves to sell his 'interest', perhaps alerted that there has been a leak about his ownership. The club has been touting for new investors.

 

 

 

Hayward left - Doherty right at the club

 

But if the Football Association does its homework it’s possible that interested parties would be able to pick the club up for a song.

 

And a spokesman for the CDV said: "If the Football Association were to undertake a serious investigation we would be more than prepared to show them our files on Hayward.'

 

Hayward's ‘ace up his sleeve’ is that despite his reluctance he might pass a ‘fit and proper person test’ because he has never been convicted of any criminal offence. This is almost certainly due to the fact that since a young age he has always lived in countries where the police have been pliable and run their own rackets.

 

Thai police rarely investigate foreigner on foreigner fraud - and never against a victim overseas.

 

 

Paul Hayward - Thai Immigation foto

Hayward arrived in Thailand 15 years ago when he was only 25 years old and worked as a ‘loader’ for the Brinton Group – a boiler room run by Irishman John Kealy – which was closed down in raids by the Thai police prompted by requests from the Australian Federal Police and FBI in 2001.

 

He also worked as an opener for a company called Foreign Currency International before a meteoric rise to become one of the partners in Premium Placements – a boiler room run by what become known as the Bangkok ‘Big Five’.

 

The other four members were Glendon Bullard, from Georgia, U.S. whose brother in law is the titular Managing Director of the Nana Group and who himself became President of the Thailand branch of the Bandidos motorcycle gang and Americans Mark Hutcherson, Jack Prather and Paul Richard Bell.

 

 

Bullard

Hutcherson, Bell, and Bullard are all now reported to be dead – Bullard, a heavy cocaine user, died in Pai in Mae Hong Son Province of Thailand in March.

 

His home in Chiang Mai had been raided last year by the Thai Police Crime Suppression Division at the request of the US Drug Enforcement Administration but nothing was found.

 

The notoriously corrupt CSD was virtually closed down last year with some 80 per cent of its officers transferred as a result of corruption allegations. The Lt.Colonel responsible for the raid on Bullard's Chiang Mai home later died while co-operating with investigator - after falling 'from a height'.

 

Hutcherson was reported (unconfirmed) to have died in a shooting incident, perhaps self inflicted, in the United States last week and Bell succumbed last year to heart trouble. He was buried in Texas on July 11 according to a funeral services report.

 

In all boiler room raids in Thailand while the Royal Thai Police appeared to be co-operating, none of the bosses have been charged with any serious criminal offences while the young people manning the phones were fined and deported for working without visa. Further, one boiler room boss (Frank Giannini) walked off charges of killing two Thais in an accident while under the influence of drugs which were found in his car.

 

Many openers and loaders in the Brinton Group came back on the next plane.

 

 

Raid on Brinton Group in Bangkok - FBI officer in foreground (Pic A Chant)

 

 

The Brinton raid, which were billed as a 'triumph of international police co-operation' - was in fact totally ineffectual and not a penny was recovered.

 

Hutcherson

 

Kealy and his team faced charges bought by the Thai Securities and Exchange Commission with trading in shares while not registered to do so – and they quickly paid off their fines of about US$10,000 each, while draining the Hong Kong banks, which were holding their stashes and moving the cash elsewhere. The Brinton Group had been targeting Australian investors.

 

But Hayward as a star ‘loader’, a person delegated to ensure clients keep putting more and more cash in, was soon hitting Britain with a company called Jackson Cole getting people to invest in a company called Secure Tee.

 

He is credited with making some US$80 million out of that scam – less his payroll and expense and there was no looking back.

 

Britain’s Serious Organised Crime Squad were given a list of all the victims which had been stolen from Hayward’s office by two American-Thai brothers James and John McCleary – but no action was taken – and of course SOCA has now been replaced by the National Crime Agency.

 

The McCleary brothers were later jailed along with two police officers for the kidnap of American Mark Hutcherson, a partner-in-crime of Hayward. They claimed they were innocent and merely reporting the boiler room, run by Hayward and Hutcherson to police - while police decided to make some extra cash.

 

BELOW - Part of an ABC Four Corners report on the Brinton Group

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another person who also tipped off police in Thailand about Hayward’s activities in Thonglor, Bangkok, Canadian Stephen Sharpe, was forced to flee to Manila – where the boiler room operators had a similar number of scams running.

 

He was subsequently set up on drugs and rape charges but was released after an investigation by the Philippines National Commission on Human Rights and having spent four years in jail has, He has now returned to his family home near Toronto.He wrote a document on Hayward called 'The Painted Picture' before his arrested,

 

And with regards to Foreign Currency International, a New Zealander, Ian Travis, who broke ranks and tried to steal clients, was gunned down in the centre of Bangkok while driving his BMW.

 

Nobody was ever taken to court for the murder. Although the boiler room boss Jim Muller was actually extradited to stand trial for it with three Thais - they never did.

 

Tipping off police in Thailand and the Philippines on boiler room operations is a dangerous business as the cases of McClearys and Sharpe demonstrate.

 

Steven Sharpe aka Burt

 

The Nana Group security force is comprised almost entirely of off duty policeman from Lumpini Police Station in Bangkok and Hayward can also call upon a 3 star army general as his protector, according to the CDV.

 

A spokesman for the CDV which runs a website exposing frauds based out of Bangkok said his group approached the General in question through a third party and were merely told that he would not consider changing his position unless they could increase the offer.

 

Hayward has closed down most, but not all, of his operations in Thailand which were located in Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Pattaya, and he has already been thrown out of Cambodia, but evidence suggests that, even though he does not have to work again, boiler room scams are still operating under his name in the Philippines and Indonesia – both of which have a corruption rating higher than Thailand.

 

The closing and opening of rooms and switching from the Philippines to Thailand, to Malaysia, to Indonesia and even Bucharest is quite common. The operators use VOIP lines.

 

Whatever the FA decide, were it to investigate, is almost immaterial set against a background of massive international fraud. The cleaning up of a small football club pales into insignifance. Boilr room cash could buy a small country.

 

What is significant is that Hayward allowed his vanity to get the better of him by wanting to control a football club.

 

A spokesman for the Gotelee solicitors of Ipswich who represent Hayward said that their client denied all allegations that he was involved in boiler room share scamming and intended to issue a writ unless all references to him were removed and an apology given.. Mr. Hayward was a businessman in the property lease, restaurant and nightclub business, Gotelee stated.

 

If the allegations were not with drawn 'our client will have no option but to issue proceedings'.

 

 

*Boiler Room Investopedia: "A place where high-pressure salespeople use banks of telephones to call lists of potential investors (known as a "sucker lists") in order to peddle speculative, even fraudulent, securities. A boiler room is called as such because of the high-pressure selling."

 

 

 

 

And finally here's a very good film by an Aussie Keith Jones, who unwittingly invested in a boiler room scam operating out of the Northern Thai capital of Chiang Mai. He made the film to help himself through his ordeal. He finally tracked down a boiler room 'cooler' called Edward Martin, aka Ian Beck.

Thanks.

Can someone please summarise the Andrew Drummond post. His site is blocked in Thailand.

Thanks.

Yes...I'm pretty sure you're right.

He was linked with BEC Tero, who are currently managed by his former boss at Kilmarnock, Kenny Shiels.

And yet another pub has opened in Burton to satisfy the needs of Latics supporters. What was originally the Blue Posts and, after closure, attempted to reopen under different names/formats over many years, has now been totally revamped as The Crossing Ale House & Kitchen. The name originates from its location being where the breweries’ railway system crossed the High Street.

 

 

It was immortalised by L.S.Lowry in 1961.

 

 

The Crossing has a big menu and a good choice of beers. It also has a beer garden.

http://thecrossingburton.co.uk/

 

 

Similarly, what used to be the Friendly Fryer fish & chip shop, with eat-in facilities, has been closed for a few years but has now opened again at 141-142 Derby Street. It’s about half-way between the Burton Central Travelodge and the Pirelli Stadium.

 

 

 

 

The Dog. The Blue Posts. Some happy memories of those two places. :-)

Ian Marshall will be on the Danny Baker Show (Radio 5) at 10:00am today.

Double post deleted

The Texaco Cup run in 1974 stands out for me. I went to all the home matches, plus City and Blackpool away. Happy days.

Coming back to England for the summer we thought we were going out of existence. I remember the away trip to Morecambe being quite an emotional one.

We have!

A family friend, a great bloke and a true Latics hero.

I too hope that the club does something special to remember him on Saturday. He's one of a select few who actually deserves it.

R.I.P. Harry. It was a pleasure to have known you and to have watched you play.

He was also Mark E. Smith's favourite footballer, and this story sums up the man:

Who were your favourite players?
Harry Dowd, the goalkeeper in the championship team in 1968, was the best. He still worked as a plumber part-time and my dad was a plumber too. We used to go behind the goal and Harry would wander over and talk about washers and copper joints. I remember being at a cup tie once and Harry was saying “Do you know if this goes to extra time today, only I’ve got a job on at half five?” then suddenly people are shouting “Harry Harry!” and the team we were playing are charging down the pitch and Harry rushes out, dives at someone’s feet, throws the ball up the pitch then comes back and starts again, “So, is this extra time today...?” (from When Saturday Comes)

It's one of the "great derbies in world football" according to Paul. :-)

Scholes’ week: What caught my eye

Man of the week: Frank Lampard Followed up a fine performance against Bayern with a goal against Southampton.

Manager of the week: Oldham Athletic's Lee JohnsonWho else? His team won 3-0 away at Rochdale, one of the great derbies in world football, and are up to sixth in League One.

Goal of the week: Marouane Fellaini’s first goal at Old Trafford He has shown great character.

Match of the week: Queen’s Park Rangers vs Leicester City QPR's victory showed a bit of steel in Harry Redknapp’s team.

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/paul-scholes-column-barcelona-seem-bored-to-me-they-are-a-ghost-of-their-former-selves-9904796.html

By pure coincidence, I was reading an interview with him from a 2004 issue of Four Four Two earlier today.

"Most of the kids at my school supported United or City, but my dad took me to see Oldham when I was young and from then on I was hooked. It made you a bit different in the playground being an Oldham fan. It was just me and another lad."

He goes on to mention standing with the Latics fans at Maine Road for the 1990 FA Cup semi final (in spite of being on the books at Utd) and travelling down to Upton Park for the League Cup semi final second leg.

He goes on to say how Andy Ritchie was his hero: "because he used to score all the goals."

(Un)fortunately, I can't read the Daily Heil article, because that website is blocked in Thailand. What does it say?

852 from Newcastle, that's a great following for a nothing game.

Bless 'em.

No contest. Burton Albion for me.

Come on, you Brewers!

I think it's a great idea and should be implemented the day after all the big city clubs agree to merge. Places like Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield, Bristol etc would be much stronger with only one club.

Keith Hicks on Tommyfield Market. He was sitting by himself on a bench and looked extremely bored. Probably waiting for his wife.

Rodger Wylde, Paul Heaton, Paul Atkinson and Bill Urmston in central London. I was on my way to Broadcasting House to give a demo tape to John Peel. They were sightseeing before that evening's match at QPR. They promised to leave me a ticket on the gate. They did.

Harry Dowd (a family friend). Went round to his house loads of times when I was a youngster and he also did some plumbing work in our bathroom.

Not me but my dad met Andy Ritchie in a supermarket (Healds?) in Shaw the morning after we'd lost to Reading to get relegated to the 3rd Division. I think my old man gave him a pretty hard time! Sorry, Andy.

Carlisle to stay up and the Brewers to get promoted would be my ideal scenario.

Assume there's no one on here because we've taken 4000 to Carlisle

Anyway were winning one nil Dayton

Listening to radio Cumbria barrow v hednes ford. Also reports on the Mintcakes - Kendal to you and me

"Also reports on the Mintcakes - Kendal to you and me"

They're still Netherfield to some of us. :-)

Great win again today. Hope for two more to end the season a real positive note.

Intimidating was away at Sheffield Wednesday in the year of the riot. We were in their end with a small wall separating us. That was bad.

I remember it well. There weren't many of there that day. I still can't believe they put us in that tiny pen in the middle of the home support.

Match Stats

Colchester United - Oldham Athletic

Possession

47% - 53%

Shots

24 - 4

On target

7 - 1

Corners

13 - 1

Fouls

15 - 9

I don't know which is more surprising - us only having one shot on target or you not going to the match!

Great result!

Plenty to choose from for non Thai speakers here. However, I'll offer up the goalkeeper of my local team. He's called Sinthaweechai Hathairattanakool.

We were in for Barrick a few times I think, along with Ian Lawson...

He was keen to come. Speaks very highly of Stitch.

I've played with and against a few ex pros. The most high profile being the ex England duo of David Nish and Roger Davis (for different teams) when they were playing in the Burton leagues during the mid 80s. I remember Nish being particularly classy.

I currently work with former Sheffield Wednesday (and others) defender, Dean Barrick. He turns out quite regularly for our Friday afternoon games. He also claims that Andy Ritchie tried to sign him for Oldham but Chr*s M**re but the block on it.