Concern over delay in sentencing businessman over Louis Tomlinson Doncaster Rovers fraud trial
A judge has expressed concern in delays in sentencing a Northern Irish businessman convicted over a fraud which targeted Doncaster pop star Louis Tomlinson in a failed takeover of Doncaster Rovers.
Kevin Phelan was convicted over the affair last August - but has still not been sentenced.
Leeds Crown Court heard that Phelan, 62, has yet to undergo a medical procedure for a condition that is delaying his sentencing.
Phelan did not attend a sentencing hearing in January at which one of his co-conspirators was jailed for eleven years and another was jailed for five for their roles in a pension fraud scheme.
The Northern Ireland businessman acted as a land agent for Irish politician Michael Lowry and businessman Denis O’Brien in property deals in England in the 1990s.
In January, his sentencing was adjourned to allow him to get medical treatment the court heard was necessary. He is currently due to be sentenced next month.
When the matter was mentioned before Judge Penelope Belcher on Monday, she said she had been told by his lawyers, by email, that a medical procedure he was due to undergo had been delayed.
Saying she was “losing patience with this”, the judge adjourned the matter again and said she wanted evidence on the next occasion as to why the procedure had not taken place by then, if that proved to be the case and said her concern was “getting greater by the minute”.
“He will be sentenced by this court and he needs to understand that,” the judge said.
Earlier this year, co-conspirators Daniel Giles and Mohammed Bashforth were jailed after conning 74 victims by falsely offering a tax-free method of accessing their pension pots early.
Along with Phelan, at one stage the fraudsters tried to use the "smokescreen" of attempting to buy Doncaster Rovers Football Club to explain away unusual payments while being investigated.
Giles, 51, and Bashforth, 63, were both found guilty of conspiracy to cheat the public revenue and conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation and sentenced to 11 years and five years respectively.
Phelan was not in court when the jury delivered its verdict. The judge was told his inability to attend was due to treatment he was receiving in Northern Ireland for “potentially serious heart issues”.
In 2014 One Direction megastar Tomlinson was the poster boy of a crowdfunding push - along with ex-Rovers chairman John Ryan - for what was hoped to be a new dawn for the club but it quickly unravelled.
It was reported that the deal would reportedly hand over 70 per cent of Rovers to Belize-based Sequentia Capital SA if the takeover was successful. However, the trial heard that the firm was sourcing its funds from stolen pension money,
There is no suggestion that Tomlinson knew about the pension fraud.
The deal would ultimately fall through after acrowdfunder raised just £600,000 with all donations returned.