Original subtitles

This programme deals with suicide and contains some strong language.

I think the main reason we're all sitting in front of the camera

and exposing our demons, if you like, or our truths,

is because the financial abuse in football

and the dark side of football

is something that's gone under the radar for too long.

- COMMENTATOR: - And Murphy...scores!

I know the amounts. I've lost...

..four, maybe, five.

Four or five million, roughly.

A lot of people think,

"You're overpaid, anyway. Big deal.

"You were fortunate. You messed it up. Now you're like us."

People will assume I've got another four. Well, I haven't.

The financial abuse I've suffered

has caused me monumental problems in my life.

Unfortunately, I am certainly not a lone wolf in this story.

- COMMENTATORS: - What an outstanding goal!

To Tommy Johnson!

It's Craig Short.

And Deane scores!

Thousands of football players

have been manipulated...

..by financial advisers and had their money taken.

Players have been left in a devastating financial position.

The only people that have made money are the advisers.

On top of that, they've got crippling tax bills...

..which will, in some cases,

bankrupt them and make them homeless.

Marriages have broken down.

Friendships have been destroyed.

People are suicidal.

Justice is for those who want it the most.

You've got to fight for it. It doesn't come easy.

You've just got to keep going.

This has been the scandal of

the Premier League era...

..and it needs to be exposed.

I don't want to be here today. I'm sure my former team-mates

and colleagues don't want to be here either.

We've been pulled together for the last decade

to fight this scandal.

But today is about highlighting a silent epidemic that is affecting

people from all walks of life,

with sometimes tragic consequences.

We want justice. We want

the Government to take notice.

From our group, the V11,

we've been together nigh on ten years now.

Everybody has come at us,

but we just keep on fighting.

And we won't stop until we get justice.

- What do we want? - Justice!

- When do we want it? - Now!

Enough's enough!

Financial misconduct is a huge

problem for people all over the UK.

Enough is enough. And we stand

shoulder to shoulder with all these victims

to march and campaign for reform.

Thank you very much.

We want justice!

- What do we want? - Justice!

- When do we want it? - Now!

- What do we want? - Justice!

- When do we want it? - Now!

You're invincible when you're playing.

Everyone loves you. You're getting paid every week.

Everything's done for you, given to you on a plate.

Murphy...

Oh, my goodness!

Danny Murphy!

All right?

I've got someone in my ear to tell me if I do it wrong.

But there's loads of pitfalls out there.

How long have we got? Are we on time?

All right, then, stand by VT...

Counting into the programme in four,

- three, two, one... - Mix 4, cue Gary.

- GARY LINEKER: - Hello. Six games on the way,

with last-minute winners, floodlight failures,

and even a drone stopping play.

And speaking of drones,

Alan Shearer and Danny Murphy are here!

- STUDIO: - Camera 1. - GARY LINEKER: - At West Ham...

As the Premier League grew and finances grew, the sharks...grew.

MUSIC: Rhythm Is A Dancer by Snap

A whole new ballgame.

An historic season for English football begins on Saturday...

- Whatever it takes. - The biggest change in

the 104-year history of English football.

As the Premier League kicks off...

- What a goal! - Yeah, they've got it!

The day the Premier League started, in 1992,

was the day when football changed overnight.

Money flooded into the game.

With the TV revenues coming in...

MUSIC OFF

..suddenly, these young kids, who haven't often had much money,

and their families haven't

had much money, are suddenly awash with money.

Inevitably, you're going to get these people coming in,

trying to get a piece of it.

I don't think the clubs cared too much, really.

If you were a friend of a player and you were in finance,

you could get access to anyone.

You could get in the training ground and speak to the lads.

So before you know it, you're under the wing of a financial adviser

or a company that you don't know.

We were in an environment where we should have felt protected.

All we came to do

was play football,

you know, and if you're playing elite-level football,

you need to be able to trust somebody.

At the very heart of this

are Kingsbridge Asset Management.

They inserted themselves in the space between the players,

the agent and the club.

And they said, "What we have is the financial expertise

"to manage your money."

And there weren't many people offering that at that time.

They were founded by David McKee and Kevin McMenamin.

They started out in Nottingham.

The Premier League took them into a complete different stratosphere.

Off the car! Off the car!

McKee always claimed that he'd played for Ross County

and, therefore, he understood the football world.

Can't get away from all these autographs!

So his pitch to the footballers was,

"I understand what's driving you and your needs.

"This is a big family, and you're a member of the family.

"Come in the warm embrace of Kingsbridge.

"We'll look after you."

Kingsbridge, they seemed to be

in line with what everybody wanted at the time,

which was to have somebody looking after your finances

for when you finish playing.

It was like wildfire word of mouth.

"I'm being looked after by these guys.

"Maybe you should talk to them."

So if they got the, you know, the most influential person

in the changing rooms, you felt that you were in a safe place.

You see all these super-big names who you've looked up to.

The brochure, this big company,

all these wonderful international footballers...

Never mind just players - managers.

The really smart move very early on was getting into

the League Managers Association.

Kingsbridge ran the website for the League Managers Association.

They had a quote where

chairman Howard Wilkinson endorsed Kingsbridge.

Once they were in with the managers,

the pressure on everybody else in the dressing room is just immense.

Leeds United have today signed the Wallace twins,

Rod and Raymond, from Southampton.

Leeds have been chasing Rod for months,

and although Rod, on the left, is the star,

Leeds are glad to have both of them.

It's expected the deal will cost Leeds about

a million-and-a-half pounds.

OK, gentlemen...

That was a record signing at the time,

which is, like, peanuts now,

but it was a record signing for Leeds.

The signing of the contract!

If the opportunity for me to have a terrifically balanced team,

age-wise, comes along, I'm going to dive in and take that opportunity.

But I think we can win next week

by signing Old Mother Riley, then we'll sign her.

LAUGHTER

Howard Wilkinson was the manager.

A Sergeant Major.

He had his, he had his character of,

you know, being strict and all that sort of stuff.

INAUDIBLE OVER CROWD NOISE

In that first season, we won the First Division.

- COMMENTATOR: - Now Speed. Wallace again.

He was a bit lucky then. I think he might have been

trying to play it back to Speed,

but on he goes.

He's made his own luck.

Rodney Wallace...

What an outstanding goal,

on an outstanding day for Leeds United!

It's their finest hour.

Leeds United are worthy champions.

- PA: - Ladies and gentlemen, the man who has made it possible.

Please welcome...Sergeant Wilko, Howard Wilkinson!

CHEERING

Here he comes, complete with family...

- You all right? - Mm-hm. You?

Hello!

Hey! Hello. Come on...

It was one of the major advantages for us

to know that our managers were involved in

the, uh, in the company, Kingsbridge.

Me and my wife were looking to, uh, have a family.

Just make sure that our finances were in a good place.

So it was just a natural thing, really, to go with them.

2008 or '09,

I knew that something was going wrong.

I'm a practising investment fraud lawyer, and dual-qualified

as a chartered financial planner.

I got introduced to Rod Wallace

by a sporting football charity.

He appeared to essentially be

in a desperate financial position,

as a result of all of the advice and the investments

that he'd been advised to take out.

Film schemes were a really

integral part to the story.

British films with budgets of

15 million or less will qualify for

100% write-off for tax purposes,

when the film is completed...

The origin of the film schemes

lies with the UK Government.

What the Government wanted to do

was invest in

the film industry in this country.

So what they did was to say that

if ordinary people invested in making films,

we would be allowed to write that investment off

against our own tax.

It was, in its conception, entirely legitimate,

and it's what people wanted to happen.

What the Government didn't envisage was that the tax advantages

that they'd put into legislation

would be abused and would be

turned into a financial product.

They're insanely complicated.

The easy part is saying you get a tax break.

It's a no-brainer. They're safe and secure,

government-backed, like a pension. Who's going to say no?

Kingsbridge, for recommending these schemes,

would have been paid very significant commissions.

In some cases, £60,000,

£70,000 per scheme.

What was beautiful about the film scheme, in terms of Kingsbridge,

it gave them instant access to 40% of the total investment

on each and every film scheme.

I'm the football player, for example.

Kingsbridge is saying to me, "Give me 100 grand."

I say, "Yes, I trust you."

You take my 100 grand, you then leverage another £900,000

from a variety of well-known, famous banks.

Kingsbridge put that money in the film schemes...

..and for that million quid, you get 400 grand back.

You could do as you see fit with that money, as long as

you pay the thing back in 15 years' time.

The problem was the 400 grand never got invested properly.

Often, it went into property schemes

which were controlled by Kingsbridge, which then failed.

When it all collapses...

..you have no money, and HMRC

come and say, you do owe the tax.

My worth at the time

would have been 1.9 million.

With the film schemes...

HE CHUCKLES ..it's gone. Yeah, it's gone.

You try and keep the house as happy as possible.

Having the chats about

what we've been going through...

..you can't really do that.

No, we don't really talk about it too much.

I mean, it's been going on for so long that

unless there's, you know, like,

some major change...

- ..I suppose you try not to think about it too much. - No.

Well, it's just heartbreaking, really.

Kingsbridge have landed me with

a 1.6-million tax bill.

If the HMRC get their way,

then that would be the end of my financial life.

I'll be bankrupt, erm, homeless...

Yeah, it would be...

It would be devastating.

If someone says, "I want to put all this money aside for the future,

"because I've got a long retirement ahead of me,"

and the adviser recommends something that's completely different to that,

then absolutely, that is both negligent advice

and, in some cases, it will be illegal.

Rod then introduced me to a number of other players

that he was close to, and the scale of it became apparent.

You've got the number-one

financial advisory company promoting

a secure future for its clients

and taking the cream of the Premier League,

the internationals, the top players, the top managers,

and ruining lives.

Sometimes, I wish I'd never been a professional.

Marcus!

Enjoy it. All right? Try and relax, OK?

Use it!

I think he can go... Look, Cameron!

I started off non-league.

Years later, I'm going for a record fee

as a defender.

And I thought, right, I'm going to be made for life

if I invest my money properly.

I thought I was given the right advice.

The more we've researched,

then you understand then, the anger has just grown and grown and grown.

Once Kingsbridge got the money in from the film schemes,

then the next stage was to say,

"Well, what we'll do is, we'll put you into property schemes."

Charlotte Harbor was a development

on the West Coast of Florida,

of condominiums.

Commission on some of these very risky products

could have been 20% or 30% of the amounts invested.

Many of these schemes were

unregulated, overseas,

high-risk structures, with a high chance of failure.

I remember them putting a big plan out on the table

at the training ground.

Players are gathering round who are clients of Kingsbridge.

"That's where the money's going to go. It's a safe bet."

And that's when everyone just said,

"OK, then, we'll put our money in there."

Charlotte Harbor was promised to be...

..a sort of cross between

Long Island and California.

Charlotte Harbor actually was

a windswept stretch of sand,

next to an industrial complex.

They were ridiculously overvalued,

and it appears now

that the people who had the vested interest

in Charlotte Harbor were the people involved in Kingsbridge.

Nobody properly advised

would have put their money into that scheme.

I was told the valuation

was at about 25% higher

than what we purchased them for.

Within a few years, you realised that it was nowhere near that.

The first one had no value whatsoever.

I had a huge mortgage on it,

which I just couldn't afford the repayments,

so the easiest thing for me to do was walk away,

giving the keys back.

I never even went there!

For these people to come into my life and be my friends

and then take my money...

..and be able to get away with it...

I mean, sometimes, you want to hurt people.

They came into my life for years

and then financially abused me.

All of his investments have gone...

..and he's facing a £1 million liability,

If you pay the Revenue £50,000 a year,

it would take 30 years.

The... The anger and the...

And... See, even now, I'm talking now, I can feel it now.

I'm fortunate, I've got

a very good job,

but people I thought were my friends took away my future.

# Happy birthday to you

# Happy birthday, dear Johnny

# Happy birthday to you. #

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

The problems came when Craig retired.

He started receiving brown envelopes from HMRC.

The bills were huge,

absolutely huge.

We discovered that Craig's

total liability was £1.6 million.

Thank you for all your support for the family.

So thank you all, and happy birthday. All the best.

So the first thing we did was reach out to HMRC.

Unfortunately, we didn't get a very good response.

What they said to Craig was,

"We're going to bankrupt you

"every year of your working life."

He also received a bankruptcy petition on Christmas Eve.

I'm sitting there thinking, "God, I'm accused of being a tax avoider."

I broke down in the meeting,

and that was the end of the meeting, really.

She could have easily just walked away.

Easily walked away.

When there's letters coming through the door,

when there's bailiffs knocking on the door, most people would.

- Thank you. Could I get a taxi to Farringdon, please? - Yeah.

I began my career as a solicitor

and criminal defence lawyer.

I'm devoted to this cause.

It has completely transformed everything, really.

I'm Carly Barnes. You all know me.

I'm chairing the panel. I'm also Secretariat for the APPG.

I obviously felt completely protective of Craig

and that I needed to help Craig as my partner,

but also, at the same time,

we were hearing amongst our network,

if you like, of all these stories.

- That's right, Carly. Obviously, I'll walk it through... - Mm.

They'd ask how he is. He'd say, "I'm good, apart from..."

And then that would trigger a conversation, where they'd say,

"Oh, my God, you as well!"

Hiya, Sean, it's Carly. I just got your message...

Word started getting round that I was trying to help people,

because of my legal background.

In Craig's case, he had bailiffs coming to the training ground,

when he was trying to work.

I said, "Look, I haven't got the money.

"I'm at the end of my career. I'm done."

We had about 200 Kingsbridge clients reach out to us,

and it was just like a chain reaction.

They don't want to hear from

the individuals themselves.

Make them understand

the humanity of this.

So what I came up with was,

why don't we form a team...

..of 11 people that will represent everybody, eventually?

And 11 people from different walks of life, different circumstances...

..that are really committed to finding a solution.

It was March 2016

when we first got together.

We have, within the group,

team captains...

..Premier League title holders,

Champions League winners...

..FA Cup winners.

This is a group of extraordinarily successful players.

The group is called the V11.

V is for victors.

They were big names in the game.

They created some of the biggest

sports stories in British history.

A good ball by Dixon.

Finding Smith. For Thomas.

Charging through the midfield,

Thomas! It's up for grabs now!

Thomas!

Right at the end!

I'm just living like a clown.

All fun on the outside, laughing and joking...

..but every day...

..I think about a lot of things.

Self-harming...

And I'm one of the lucky ones.

It was tough even just to speak out,

but I thought, I have to speak out

for people who are suffering in silence.

There's sportsmen out there

who are struggling,

all by themselves,

without no help at all,

who are frightened to turn to anybody.

You feel like, how could you have been so stupid?

You look around at your family, you don't feel worthy.

But having said all of that,

you actually have to go out every day,

and you put your veneer on and you say...

You smile, you get dressed, you say,

"Well, I'm Brian Deane and everything's great.

"Everything's fantastic."

My advice was the V11 engage some investigators

who can actually look at it and say, is it mis-selling,

or is it actually much worse than that?

We began work on this

back in May of 2016.

We've amassed 60,000 pieces of information and documentation.

Forgeries, hidden interests,

alleged criminality.

And we've got reports and witness statements

from key staff members at Kingsbridge.

Those that were there to guide, support them,

left them with no money,

no prospects and a retirement of pain and anguish.

The stark reality is, they're on a knife edge.

We are doing this for nothing.

It's a matter of justice.

- INTERVIEWER: - Tommy Johnson, you promised me that goal

before the game, and you got it.

Yeah, can't believe it.

I think promotion, we come here for first, and then to score,

it's brilliant.

CROWD CHANT AND CHEER

All I ever wanted to do was play football.

School team, district, county...

..then got spotted by Notts County.

Turned pro, 75 quid a week.

Got in the first team, 17, 18.

We got promotion in successive seasons.

Getting it into Tommy Johnson.

A brilliant goal!

Tommy Johnson, his second!

You're 19 and 20, playing at Wembley and scoring goals.

Can you just say a couple of words?

Went to Derby, then went to Villa.

Then went to Celtic.

I was on £8,000 a week.

Four-and-a-half years.

Larsson! It opens up for him...

Unselfishly to Tommy Johnson!

Johnson gets the party going!

Won the league! We've won the league!

Winning the treble, scoring a goal,

win the league... No, doesn't get any better.

Oh, here we are!

Box of photos.

Can have a look through these.

Kingsbridge started representing me

through our ex-agent.

Holidays...

We all lived in Nottingham,

so we had that connection.

There were my financial advisers

and a lot of the players' financial advisers at Villa.

Oh, hang on!

League Cup, 1996. Dear me!

They were there.

Got them tickets.

Probably one of the best games ever

for Aston Villa.

Here's Villa with another attack.

Savo Milosevic...

Oh, a terrific goal!

The Coca Cola Cup final

has been won by Aston Villa.

Oh, there you go!

Wow!

Them two and me in the background.

Oh, here we are.

Me, obviously, there.

We've won... We won 3-0.

And then Dave McKee,

Kevin McMenamin.

Not many people get to hold

the League Cup in their hands, do they? And...

..drinking out of it.

Bastards.

That just shows how close they were.

People will turn round and say they were just financial advisers.

They weren't. They were friends.

I was probably the closest one to them.

We went away together.

They came to my wedding.

These guys have just ruined our lives.

They've got so embedded in their lifestyle,

they know their family, they know the children.

They'll run their lives, their financial lives for them.

It becomes a relationship of trust.

And of course, the more it grows,

the bigger the scope for dishonesty,

because nobody is checking at all.

These guys didn't have a chance.

The way that their advisers were working,

they could not have stopped this happening.

So this is a, this is an investment report that was provided

for a professional footballer in December 2006.

Was setting out some recommendations and a summary of his asset base,

really dealing with his income needs in retirement.

You know, this report tells him that his assets are £12.2 million.

And in terms of liabilities, there's no real mention of,

you know, the millions of pounds of film scheme liabilities

that we, that we know he's got which, you know, in my view,

would have given him a completely false understanding

of what his true position was and his true net worth.

The reality of where he's at today is a million miles away.

Because of Kingsbridge, the largest tax bill I've seen

is about 20 million.

For the V11...

..the average is north of £1 million.

People say to me, oh, you don't really talk that much.

You don't ask questions.

Turn around...

My dad used to say,

"Ask no questions, get told no lies."

And this whole saga's been full of lies,

full of greed.

Davis... Oh, what a finish!

Sean Davis secures

the First Division title for Fulham!

Oh, it's fantastic. I've been here a long time now

and this is, it's the best time ever.

Bring on the Premiership!

I'll get this in.

Split up with my ex

about three years ago now.

We get on quite well.

Duvet on...

I started getting the brown letters through the door, HMRC,

and it was a big shock to the system,

and I kind of took it onboard myself.

Shut myself off.

To have any successful relationship, communication's key,

and I kind of destroyed that, really.

This is the one.

That was the first

Premier League game I played.

Away to Man United.

I can tell people that

I outran Henry and Vieira.

I don't think I did,

but it looks like I did!

HE LAUGHS

Good times.

Yeah.

The Premier League signing here.

It's always a good thing.

I've been painting and decorating with my mate.

I wish I would have just enjoyed the money more.

The sad thing is, when I'm at my happiest is when I've had a drink...

..cos you kind of forget about it.

But then when I wake up the next day,

that's when I'm at my worst.

I literally want to kill myself the next day. That's how I feel.

That's why I love fishing. It just gets me away.

- COMMENTATOR ECHOES: - Davis...

Oh, what a finish!

I used to be the life and soul.

Now stands the clock at five to three,

and once more, there's football here to see.

Carl Bradshaw with the long throw.

Cork waiting on the edge of

the six-yard area.

And Deane scores!

I go over to see my parents every week

and I come through the door, my mum,

she treats me like a little kid still, you know?

Yeah, we're happy to know that, you know, he's a footballer

and his name be in the papers

and sometimes on television.

You know, it makes us feel happy.

To be able to say,

"Mum, Daddy, I'm going to help you,"

those things mean more to me

than scoring the first goal.

I left Sheffield United

and it was Howard Wilkinson who signed me at Leeds.

- ARCHIVE: - At Elland Road,

Howard Wilkinson is always in demand.

There is no hotter property than the Leeds United manager.

He was up there with a lot of the top managers

across Europe at the time.

It seemed like a match made in heaven, really.

Here is Brolin. Chipped in...

And it's there!

Football was an opportunity to dream.

- Go this way. - Go! - Come on.

Fast as you can, stand upright, come on.

My dad had said,

having your own house,

having no debt, if there's one thing that you can have,

nobody can tell you what to do in your own house, type thing.

So that was always at the back of my mind.

I bought my first house when I was 20.

I had a tenant in there.

I was doing good.

That's Michael Thomas's wedding, in the Bahamas.

There's Mickey.

There's me, on Mickey's shoulder.

And there's McKee.

Now, that's somebody who is

quite happy to observe

and look for the opportunities.

As soon as I met McKee, it felt quite invasive because he says,

"Right, what are you earning? What have you got?"

And then he came back and he says, "Right, OK, well,

"probably a good idea to sell your house."

If I'm ashamed to say,

I just kind of thought that they knew better than me.

They knew every penny that we had

and they were going to

invest it for us.

Monte Resina is this block of ten flats in Spain.

Nothing was as it really seemed.

Four of the 11 end up buying

apartments in Monte Resina.

They pay over 600,000 euros for each one.

Yeah, I went out and played golf with McKee out there.

They brought it to me and the other lads

like it was a very exclusive development...

..that was just too good to miss.

Going back to what my dad had said,

property, you know, it gave me that assurance of safety.

McKee and McMenamin owned the apartments

and instructed a Spanish company called Ogreda to manage them.

Ogreda's Director was Dawn Yates.

You can see in emails between Kingsbridge and their law firm

that it was Kingsbridge who was actually running Ogreda...

..and Dawn Yates was Dave McKee's wife.

I mean, talk about conflicts of interest!

McKee and McMenamin

set the apartment prices

and then advised their clients to buy them.

These prices were overinflated...

..as an independent valuation later showed.

Whether it's incompetence, whether it's stupidity,

whether it's straightforward greed,

the end result of that

extraordinary algorithm of forces

is the players lose their money.

It's the hurt, the shame...

..the humiliation.

You have a group of people who just want to get on with their lives,

but feel trapped.

LAUGHTER

Happy days!

You can be having a good time,

and then your mind will just flip to...

HE CLICKS HIS FINGERS

"..Oh, but don't get too carried away,

"because don't forget that this is hanging over you."

When I think about losing my dad...

..when I think about the time

leading up to where I lost my mum,

my mum used to say to me, "Brian, what's wrong with you?

"I can tell that you're not in the room."

- COMMENTATOR: - And he scores!

My mind was elsewhere.

And now, that time's gone, and she's gone.

And, um...

It would have broken their hearts to know the full extent

of what had happened.

How do you know, though, that Kingsbridge didn't just make

an innocent mistake, that they genuinely thought

all of this was great stuff and would work?

How would you know that it wasn't?

I think every professional adviser makes mistakes,

but the volume of, and the consistency of these complex,

high-risk, unregulated investments

that were just totally unsuitable for young, naive kind of...

you know, financially inexperienced footballers.

And then when you start seeing investments where the advisory firm

themselves have got an interest in the projects,

or they're involved somehow,

um, that's not a mistake.

I first got involved when an ex-player came up to me and said,

was I aware that

hundreds, if not thousands of people

had been affected by very serious financial

abuse and malpractice?

Hi, everyone.

- Hi, Andy. - Andy, all right? - Hi, Andy.

It took me back to one of the first jobs I ever had,

which was working in football in the 1990s.

I was working on the Government's football taskforce.

- It's really just an update. - Yeah.

To bring you up to speed with where we are and, if we can,

to just draw on your advice...

There were a huge number of vested interests swirling round the game.

So I kind of, you know, pieced together what I knew

and felt back then, and I realised that, yeah, there was something

seriously untoward here.

We know there are many other people who don't have the same profile,

who go through exactly the same.

I think you're kind of speaking for thousands of others

whose voices don't get heard.

Fighting this kind of injustice

is a really difficult thing to do.

So I referred this matter to the City of London Police

and asked them to open an investigation.

Great to see you all. Keep fighting.

- Good seeing you. - Keep fighting.

January the 9th, 2018.

That's when the City of London Police

commenced their investigation.

They were the global lead on fraud investigation.

We thought, "Utopia".

As the national police lead for fraud and economic crime

at the time, I got the phone call

and then started making my own enquiries.

It appeared to me to be

the biggest fraud that I'd seen in football.

A decision was made that we were going to launch a full-scale

investigation, based on the review.

What we saw were the main suspects in the case,

the directors of Kingsbridge Asset Management.

It's going to take a major investigation to work this one.

I found people who had worked at Kingsbridge, a very good witness...

..and I asked him about how it worked.

The investments we went into had the highest commission.

I remember very early on, he said,

"Oh, yes, and we just routinely forged documents."

I was a bit shocked!

There are two types of forgery

that I have seen evidenced. The first is,

"I've signed it, but I haven't got a clue

"what it is that I have agreed to."

The signing of documents...

..it became easy for them.

They'd turn up at your house or hotel.

You know, you'd have half an hour before you had to eat

or have a team meeting.

And you'd go through the conversation about

what investment you might be doing next.

At the end of the meeting, there'd be, say, three, six, eight

documents that needed signing.

And they'd be stacked,

so you could just sign them

on top of each other.

"Yeah, no problem."

People ask, "Why are you stupid enough to sign?",

but that isn't the right question.

You sign because your trusted adviser says,

"We're doing this. Sign here."

It is forgery because

the signature is procured

to something you do not understand.

The second type is what everybody would describe as forgery.

"I know nothing about the document, but my signature is on it,"

and that's because somebody else has signed it.

I went to see one footballer and I went through all his papers

with him, and he kept going,

"I didn't know I had that bank account."

And they went, "What? That bank account? What?

"And this film... I didn't even know I was in that film scheme."

And he just didn't know. And I said, "Well, that's your signature."

And he said, "That's not my signature.

"That's not my signature."

So we took them to a handwriting expert.

I was presented with documents bearing 27 signatures

of a former footballer.

Some signatures appeared different to the naked eye.

By that, I mean that the person who has written them made no attempt

to simulate the appearance of the signature.

Once they had an original signature for somebody,

they would go to the window,

they would hold that up onto the window,

they'd put the new document on top,

trace over it...

..and that was how the forgeries were done.

It was shocking.

In my opinion, all 27

of the questioned signatures were not

original signatures, produced by the individual in question.

27 out of the 27 signatures, there was evidence of forgery.

Not that some of them are forged. Every single one.

I was also presented with

three documents

pertaining to Rod and Rachel Wallace.

Yeah.

So that's what that was.

My signature.

- There's yours. - That is nothing like mine whatsoever.

And look at yours. Yeah, they've written it exactly the same.

- Yeah. - Just a few more squiggles.

- This... - It's criminal.

- No-one's checked it. - It's criminal.

When I compared the two questioned signatures in the name

Rachel Wallace, I was able to conclude, very strong evidence,

that they were not produced by her.

That's the original.

That's supposed to be yours.

How do you even get away with that?

- Look. - Mm.

And also, I found strong evidence

that they were not genuine signatures written by Rod Wallace.

- That's your real one. - Mm. - That's the fake one. - Yeah.

This is a long-term manipulation

of someone who's going to earn

lots of money for a ten or 15-year period.

The guys were completely steam-rollered, in my opinion.

There were maybe six investments...

..that we were looking to prove

that they were fraudulent by nature,

from the very onset...

..through to the eventual

collapse of that scheme.

I formed the opinion, with the team, that it was necessary to...

..make arrests.

Two men from the East Midlands have been arrested

as part of a national investigation into fraud.

City of London Police are looking

into a financial advice firm,

Kingsbridge Asset Management.

That was a very emotional moment

for the group.

It's alleged numerous victims suffered significant losses.

Firstly, devastation that on hearing the words that this had happened

to them, but also, a sense of relief

that somebody was taking it seriously.

Now, we've been abused, we've been cheated,

we've been defrauded, we've been manipulated.

Hopefully, with the help of different authorities and experts,

we can get to the end of this and put it to bed.

We were absolutely moving forward,

and it was just a question of when

we're going to be in court.

I have, throughout my career,

done heavy fraud.

I've never seen a case so big.

It is enormous.

The police need to get their investigation finished

and we need to expose this fraud.

Can I say fraud, or do I have to say alleged fraud?

But we have to expose it, because there's a generation

of footballers out there who have been ruined.

I want them found guilty and I want them put in jail.

I can't let this thing go.

And, you know, I need to see justice.

Fraud is complicated.

It's a jigsaw. You piece it together

one account, one document at a time.

End of February 2019...

..I left policing.

Around about a year later or so...

..the case was concluded.

Well...

..I've just received some shit news today

from City of London Police,

that there's not enough evidence

to go forward to prosecute.

Incompetence, in my opinion.

Angry, disgusted.

Unbelievable.

Two years, they've been at it,

and they've just dropped it through a lack of evidence.

What more do they need?

"The City of London Police have made the decision

"that there is insufficient evidence to support a realistic

"prospect of conviction."

"This is not to suggest that the victim accounts are not believed,

"just that the material we have reviewed does not meet

"the requirements for a successful prosecution.

"To be clear, the allegation of crime

"remains on our crime management system,

"and each of the 11 are identified as a victim on that crime."

Insufficient evidence to support a realistic prospect of conviction

means it has failed what's called the evidential test.

It's very mixed messaging because on the one hand,

it's sort of saying there's insufficient evidence,

but they're not saying you are not victims of crime.

That's very clear.

So, you know, as far as they're concerned, they are victims.

Oh, this... Oh, fucking hell.

I just hope this doesn't drag me down again in depression.

I'm just angry that these people...

..get away with it...

..left, right and centre.

I'm just pissed.

Pissed, pissed, pissed.

That's enough.

The police decided that they didn't

have enough evidence to charge

the people that had been arrested, but they did make it very clear

to the V11 that they considered that they were victims of crime.

The players have been left in

a really difficult position.

The HMRC are saying, well,

irrespective of the fact that

you're a victim of crime, your name is attached to

that very investment, and so you're the person

we're going to go after for the tax that's owed.

So what are we, really?

It's frustrating. It's hard to take.

It's tiring. Um...

You know, it's upsetting.

You can't live like that.

The financial abuse,

that's one trauma.

They think, "Was it my fault?

"It's not great, but I can probably survive that.

"But then what happens to me

"is then I discover that

"in actual fact, I now owe tax."

One on top of the other,

that is the stuff that takes people to the edge.

It doesn't matter who you are within that situation,

it will take everybody to the edge.

The way HMRC have treated the V11

was initially indefensible.

The culture was, chase them and make them pay.

Bankruptcy petitions on Christmas Eve.

No state organisation should treat an individual citizen like that.

That had the most unhappy effects.

If I talk about the former player

that we nearly lost...

..um, I mean, it's even...

I find it even really difficult to talk about now,

but he rang to say

he'd purchased a rope.

He said he was taking his own life, to save his family from HMRC.

He thought that if he took his own life, the liabilities would go away.

Unfortunately, they wouldn't have gone away.

His wife would have inherited them.

I think it's that reason that he didn't take his life.

We need to collect tax.

It needs to be done, we need all to pay tax.

But this system is relentless.

We can make public interest decisions.

Actually, is it in the public interest

for a person to kill themselves over a tax bill?

I can't see that it is.

Carly's aim now is to change the law in this country, to protect

the victims of investment fraud from

very serious tax charges.

Because there are other people out there who are victims of crime,

victims of fraud, who are battling life-changing tax bills.

There's a room we've been given to meet the MP, so we'll meet

Sean, Rod and Mickey first, at 10:00.

Meet the MPs who've supported us.

There are many Members of Parliament

who believe that the country

doesn't handle these issues properly

and doesn't support victims properly.

There's clearly an overwhelming need for a law change.

Constituent MPs created an All-Party Parliamentary Group

for investment fraud.

This will benefit not just footballers,

it will benefit everybody in society.

- The investigator extraordinaire. - I love it. Yeah, I love it.

- When you think about HMRC, you think of the anger. - The letters.

The letters, the sleepless nights, sleepless nights.

You know, sometimes life-threatening.

It is life-threatening, sometimes. You think about

the dark side all the time.

Is it going to take one of us...

I'm going to say, is it going to take one of us to commit suicide,

for people to stand up and realise that this is actually a serious

problem? And people who are not footballers that get defrauded,

who can't afford anything, and they're out on the street.

I was scared to tell anyone. I thought it was just my own fault.

I was being naive, trusted the wrong people.

And it was embarrassing, to be fair.

But it's the truth.

We can't just sit by any longer,

you know, being in this position

and just allow it to kind of carry on.

We need to speak up and tell people about what's happened to us.

The same thing can happen to anybody.

Just that these guys have got a bit more public profile,

and they may have had a little bit more money than the ordinary person

to invest, but the losses are the same.

The risks are the same.

Losing your house, losing your pension.

Within the group, there's wildly different financial situations.

At the sharp end, you've got members of the group who are,

you know, facing complete and utter wipe-out,

who've lost virtually everything.

In the middle, you've got people who've earned a good living.

They have had significant losses, but they're still all right.

But it's the tax aspect

that is causing extreme,

life-changing issues.

And then we've got members of the group who've had significant

financial losses, but have very small tax bills

that they could pay tomorrow,

but they are doing this for the other members of the group

because they feel it's inherently wrong,

and for wider society.

Kingsbridge floated as Kingsbridge Holdings in 2000...

..and they were the only game in town, really.

Some of the biggest names in football were shareholders,

including Howard Wilkinson.

Sergeant Wilko, Howard Wilkinson!

Howard Wilkinson, at Leeds, manages

Rod Wallace and Brian Deane.

- COMMENTATOR: - Chance here for Deane. Oh, it's there!

Also, Howard Wilkinson was the chairman of

the League Managers Association and he was a very powerful figure.

You know, he was England manager and manager of Leeds,

and a big noise in the League Managers Association.

He'd been chairman since its formation in 1992.

So it was hugely important for Kingsbridge to maintain

their relationship with him, because if the managers

began to distance themselves from Kingsbridge,

the players would most likely do the same.

We were given

the "opportunity" to buy shares,

depending on who your adviser was. Mine was David McKee.

He said, "Look, these are going to do very well and it'll be good

"to have these in your portfolio as well."

Here's my first purchase of shares ever.

I was just told that they'd just bombed.

You know, just went.

Yeah, it's just gone.

Did you receive any compensation?

- What do you mean? - Did Kingsbridge

pay you any money for the fact that you had lost money?

No!

Why would they?

Part of the documents, the evidence that we've got,

is this letter that was passed on to you.

It's for a Mr H Wilkinson.

It's Dave McKee, Director.

"In recognition of the fact that you, as chairman of the LMA,

"after consultation with me,

"held the majority of your shares

"in Kingsbridge Holdings at a time when you could have taken

"a high profit, and subsequently, during a falling market,

"we have agreed to pay you

"£2,033.33 per month for four years.

"It is recognised that the decision

"not to sell was made solely on

"the best interests of the LMA's business partnership

"with Kingsbridge Holdings.

"I look forward to our meeting."

We weren't paid that. We never got anything.

The way they've done it is just wrong.

Dave McKee was trying to just keep him sweet,

as he was the chairman of the LMA.

That's what it looks like.

- BRIAN DEANE: - We talk about power and how it's wielded.

Back in those days, players

were hugely influenced by managers.

It's just sinking in now and I'm getting pretty pissed off.

We were inconsequential.

If money and all the rest of it is their god,

then let them have it. I just want to be happy.

And that's the same for Rod. That's the same for

a lot of the other guys. We just want peace.

Can I get a return to Westminster?

Is that what it is? I never know.

You've got this image of footballers,

and there's a process of envy that sits inside that.

So rather than kind of saying, "Actually, there's these guys

"going through this terrible, awful time,"

what we get, "Oh, well, actually, you're just footballers.

"It doesn't matter. You've got money. Don't worry about it."

Thank you.

Actually, yes, this matters.

You want someone to make it go away with a magic wand.

All these issues about what you're going to do next...

..makes you really struggle to sleep.

So, I escaped from that

with chemicals.

Cannabis, cocaine.

Started gambling.

Chasing the money I'd lost, because it was a domino effect,

which then impacted me to be even in a darker place.

Addiction, depression,

anxiety, isolation.

All those things come to anybody

when you're going through something so enormous.

It's the shame, embarrassment and guilt

of getting yourself in a position that you think you're better than.

When we're talking about trauma, what we're really talking about

is an experience which turns my world inside out.

The normality that I knew and the way the world

that I thought worked suddenly doesn't.

That's post-traumatic stress disorder.

I think for them, it's absolutely vital, absolutely vital

that they're part of this group.

Our energy, as a whole,

is much greater than just 11 individual people.

"I'm not alone."

That bit matters.

Well, we're off for a meeting with HMRC up in London.

A little bit apprehensive, to be honest.

Try and explain our situation some more and give them a reality

on the way their actions and their behaviours impact us.

I just hope I represent the lads well.

That's all I can do, really.

- Hiya, you all right? - Back again!

- Long time, that, wasn't it? - It's like Groundhog Day. - Yeah.

You ready for this?

- Ready to fire up. - I've not written nothing down.

Just fire in.

Dealing with HMRC,

you just can't move on.

The cyclical nature of it has caused a horrendous amount of trauma.

There were no real

satisfactory conclusions. It's still there.

I just hope that they can put it to the back of their mind

for the festive period. But we're, you know, unfortunately,

we've got to deal with it as soon as Christmas is over.

We get to a point where we feel that we're making progress,

they start to look at the evidence, and then they'll change position.

Extremely aggressive behaviour.

Bailiffs at the door, potentially.

Not know whether you're having to pay, one minute,

next minute, you are.

And that has just happened again.

PHONE CONNECTION TONE

- Hi, everybody. Hi. - Sean on? - Sean's on. Sean's on.

Sorry, Sean. Haven't got my glasses on, Sean, sorry.

Rod, um...

Yeah. I'm not the bearer of good news, I'm afraid.

So we've had a letter from HMRC

to say that they'd be looking to

hand this over to debt management.

This is potentially putting a group

of victims to bankruptcy or similar,

where there is no way back.

They're trying to scare you into panicking into making

rash decisions and giving them what you can,

- ultimately. - The most important thing is that we sort of fight back

and put a good strategy in place.

I'm confident that,

long-term, we'll be able to change the law.

The question is, can we kick this into the long grass

for long enough to get this properly debated and to get the MPs

behind it, and to get the law change?

One of the reasons I'm still in a position

where I can even sit here and talk to you in a very

compos-mentis way is that you guys have supported me

and been there, and got us to this.

To go off on our own now and try and find a resolution

- on our own, I think will fail. - Yeah. - Yeah. - Yeah.

That's the strength, isn't it, of all of us?

Comes back to what we did as players.

You know, it was a team, you know?

And that's where we've gained that strength from.

HMRC trying to pursue the victims, without question,

that has caused more pain than the actual alleged fraud itself

and the financial losses.

I don't want to see another family go through this.

Not the best news, but, you know, we fight on.

- Absolutely. - Thank you to everyone as well.

Yeah, thank you.

It's amazing what you guys are doing, all of you.

Thank you.

Take care, everybody.

I'm worried about a couple of members of the team

because they dropped off the call and were messaging me,

and I felt really worried.

All the guys deal with it differently...

..but for Sean, he goes off-grid.

I don't think he can cope with it.

On the group, we had a Zoom call

and found out that HMRC

are still coming after us.

They're still, "No, we want our money, we want our money.

"We don't care what's happened.

"We want our money."

So, we could get letters through the door any day now.

330-odd thousand, they're saying I owe them.

The interest is going up.

It just seems that HMRC have just got no, no understanding

of what this is doing to people and people's lives.

Oh, it's gone too high. It's gone too high.

If we can be the group that gets this law changed...

..loads of people can benefit from it.

Perfect.

There's never really been money in my family.

My mum was a dinner lady.

My old man was a butcher.

Oh, wow. It's whenever I talk about my dad...

The worst thing is my old man liked my old financial adviser.

He liked him. And my dad was a good judge of character,

so he kind of pulled the wool over his eyes as well.

I don't even think I cried at my dad's funeral.

I haven't told anyone, really.

I don't want to be saying all this and then there's no change.

That would be even worse. That'd feel like I'm losing again.

COMMENTATOR: Thomas charging through the midfield.

Thomas! It's up for grabs now.

Thomas, right at the end!

I have to speak out.

The more people speak up about it,

then we can change the law.

It's not just me, a sportsman,

but someone who worked in the Civil Service,

to a cleaner who's working in the hospitals.

They're all the same.

Fraud doesn't care what you are.

And we're trying to protect everybody, really.

I'm Caroline Nokes. I'm one of the co-chairs of

the APPG on Investment Fraud.

The whole issue crossed my door when one of my constituents was impacted,

and the thing that struck me then

was this was not a man who had set out

in any way to defraud the taxman.

What we want ultimately to come up with is a report

that highlights the injustice,

that tells the personal stories

and makes a compelling case to HMRC and to Treasury ministers

that the people they're going after are the wrong targets.

Sorry.

HE CLEARS THROAT

I fluctuate from deep bouts of depression, sadness and anger.

I ask myself daily, "How is this happening?"

HMRC will probably enforce.

I have nothing to give them.

It's damaged me in ways that, um,

won't change until I'm no longer here.

I put a brave face on it, a good show, um...

..but it's a constant fight when the door closes.

It's a horrible place to be, to be honest,

because the way I've been brought up, with integrity,

you don't know anything else than to be the way you are.

Obviously, I work in the football industry still.

I'm a mentor for the young players in Liverpool,

but I'm thinking, if I'm going to pass on advice to young players

with a ridiculous amount more money now,

how the hell is this going to...

It's going to keep on happening and happening and happening.

- Yeah. - So what is the point, if we can sort this out right now?

Has it changed the law? I just don't understand it.

I think that's one of the really important points.

Young lads, surrounded by sharks, who are going to want to take

advantage of them at every turn. We'll write up a report.

We'll go round the block again,

because you can't let it drop.

You just can't let it drop.

Due to them bastards from HMRC, I'm getting my house valued tomorrow,

which is mainly because of HMRC

enforcing tax liabilities.

You can wake up feeling angry

and remembering stuff.

Yes, you have bad days, and you think about,

"Oh, what about that? What about this?"

So I'll just get up and run.

It clears your head.

Are you going to get a letter?

Are you going to get a phone call?

It's just the worry of that every day.

We want to help people. That's why we're doing this.

But deep down, it's hard.

I had to move.

The case was, yeah, we had to sell the house.

But I've said from day one, "I'm not paying it."

COMMENTATOR: Johnson gets the party going!

If then I need to go to jail...

..I'll go to jail for it.

It is tough, talking about all of this...

..but it needs to be said.

I live in Surrey.

It's been a good place to live,

but time...time, yeah, tells us that we have to move on now...

..because of an eviction notice that we was given.

Nothing in the bank.

That's the whole crux of this, um,

problem that we've got now.

We won't have anywhere to live.

We're just, like, living day-by-day at the minute.

It's not possible to, like, have any sort of plans, going forward.

Apart from, the moment that we ever get the chance,

we'll be out of this country like a shot.

As a family, I've tried to protect them as much as I could.

Then there came a point where it was just like, I had to say something.

Um...

And since that moment, we've all...

We've all, uh... We've all stuck together, haven't we?

It's just...it's gone on for so long now that it's just...

- Yeah, like, you can't dwell on it. - Mm.

You have to, um...

..put your focus on something else.

It's just trying to create, like,

good memories now, if possible.

It's going to be hard,

but I'm sure we'll be able to do it.

I just hope, um,

that the family do the same.

Rachel... Rachel does the same,

stays positive, rather than negative,

and then there's a chance that we can get through it.

Cos it has been difficult.

And it's not ending yet.

Since meeting with HMRC,

it's basically been backwards and forwards ever since.

It's legal technicalities,

whether the tax is rightfully due in law or not.

Those arguments continue.

We're marching for justice,

for the victims of financial crime.

Justice is a curious word.

Justice for one person might mean seeing somebody in prison

and being punished.

For others, it may mean something else.

It might mean actually just being able to move on with my life.

There are so many of us,

tens of thousands of people who are suffering.

- What do we want? - Justice!

- When do we want it? - Now!

- What do we want? - Justice!

- When do we want it? - Now!

To HM Treachery, it's that way.

- Thank you very much indeed. - Thank you.

Fighting for justice is a hard thing to do.

It does require people to be relentless.

It's something that will test people on every level,

when you feel so wronged

and, yet, you're in the wilderness, not being heard.

It's about getting the law changed.

I refuse to give up,

because it's not in my nature.

I wasn't brought up like that.

It's about trying to achieve reform

where it's obvious that there's failures.

For me, it's just trying to find a resolution that we can live with.

There's something that's really important about their story,

not just for them, but for all of us.

All the while we're still breathing, there's something we can do.

That's what matters.

- HM Treachery! - Shame on you!

- HM Treachery! - Shame on you!

- HM Treachery! - Shame on you!

If it wasn't for the group,

I don't know where I'd be now.

It's definitely saved lives.

You've got to keep trying to fight for justice, because otherwise,

you just give in and you lose everything you've got.