Jockey ‘left with white envelope’ after pub meeting with Rodgers
And the day after a second meeting with the alleged boss of a crooked betting syndicate, a white envelope was found under Williams’s mattress, it was said.
The prosecution alleges that £580 in cash with a £1,000 bank wrap was also found on a bedside table at Williams’s home.
Williams is accused of taking part in a race-fixing scam with fellow jockeys Kieren Fallon and Fergal Lynch, to allow horses to lose, winning the syndicate money on the online betting exchange Betfair.
He is alleged to have lost four of the 27 races involved and made the syndicate, said to be run by Rodgers, some £55,000.
Detective constable Steve Woods told the court that he saw Rodgers, Williams and trainer Karl Burke drinking at a table at the Bridge Inn, Walshford, Yorkshire, in July, 2004.
He sat four feet away and heard words which included “Great Yarmouth”, “seven lengths” and “seventy-seven grand”, he told the court.
Mr Woods said: “In the car park, I observed that Williams had a white envelope in his left hand.”
Jonathan Caplan, prosecuting, had told the court that the previous day, Williams had lost on Wares Home at Yarmouth, winning Rodgers £16,556.
Police constable Colin Gibbs said he saw Williams and Rodgers at the same pub with former jockey Gavin Faulkner on August 31, 2004. He said: “On the table were three mobile phones and a white envelope. Mr Rodgers then picked up the three mobile phones and at the same time nudged the envelope towards Mr Faulkner with the back of his hand.”
The raid on Williams’s home was the next day.
The envelope found under the mattress was similar to the one he had seen, said Mr Gibbs.
Kieren Fallon, 42, from Tipperary, Fergal Lynch, 29, of Boroughbridge, North Yorkshire, and Darren Williams, 29, of Leyburn, North Yorkshire, deny the charges.
Shaun Lynch, 38, of Belfast, Miles Rodgers, 38, of Silkstone, South Yorkshire, and Philip Sherkle, 42, of Tamworth, Staffordshire, also plead not guilty.
Rodgers also denies concealing the proceeds of crime.
* The trial was adjourned until Tuesday.
