Trial told of 'Fallon's role in plot to lose race'

A step-by-step trail of how Kieren Fallon was allegedly involved in a plot to lose a race at Goodwood was given to jurors at his Old Bailey trial today.

By coming third on the 2/1 favourite Goodwood Spirit during an evening race in August 2004, the jockey made nearly £30,000 (€43,000) for Miles Rodgers, the court heard.

Using a telephone chart, details of a text message, a Racing Post race card and a chart of Betfair account details, Jonathan Caplan QC explained to the trial how the conspiracy was allegedly carried out.

It is said to have been one of 27 horses ridden by Fallon and two other jockeys in a £2m (€2.8m) scheme to defraud punters over nearly two years.

In the case of Goodwood Spirit, it is claimed that businessman Rodgers, alleged to be at the centre of the conspiracy, “laid the horse” – that is, bet on it to lose – using seven different accounts on the online betting exchange Betfair.

He laid a total of £117,000 (€169,366) on Goodwood Spirit, winning about £30,000 when it lost, Mr Caplan said.

“The prosecution alleges that Mr Rodgers’s confidence to lay the horse for that amount of money came from what happened earlier that day, that is to say the mobile telephone contact he had with others in the conspiracy – in this case Mr Fallon through the intermediary Philip Sherkle.”

Jurors were shown a mobile phone chart which allegedly detailed a 17-second call at 11.43am on August 14, 2004 from Sherkle’s mobile to Fallon.

Another call from Sherkle to Fallon, lasting one minute and 28 seconds, followed at 12.04pm, the jury was told.

There was then a text message from the jockey’s mobile to Sherkle at 12.08, followed by a text from Sherkle to Rodgers a minute later.

The latter message, recovered from Rodgers’s mobile, read “6.55 no 4 n”.

Mr Caplan said that “6.55” referred to the race at Goodwood at that time while “no 4” referred to the number on the race card in the Racing Post that morning – not the number on the stall – and “n” meant “non-tryer”.

It is alleged this was the same message which Fallon had sent to Sherkle a minute before, forwarded to Rodgers.

“Mr Fallon was confiding in that text message that he would do what he could if necessary to stop that horse.”

At 6.36pm, Rodgers began to lay thousands of pounds on Goodwood Spirit to lose, using accounts controlled by him in seven different names, jurors were told, with the last one being laid at 6.51pm, four minutes before the race was due to start.

A total amount of £116,738 (€169,000) was laid, with the accounts making a profit of £29,822 (€43,175) from the horse losing, the court heard.