Surveillance officers 'missed Fallon getting into car'

Doubts were raised today over police surveillance in the alleged betting scam involving six-time champion jockey Kieren Fallon.

Officers, keeping a watch on several key players, missed Fallon getting into a car from Leicester racecourse driven by syndicate boss Miles Rodgers in May 2004, the Old Bailey was told.

It is alleged that Fallon and Rodgers, along with four other defendants, conspired between December 2002 and September 2004 to defraud Betfair customers and other punters.

Pc Mark Lowe, of City of London Police, was part of a surveillance operation focussed on Rodgers and his movements around Leicester racecourse and airport in May 2004.

He told the jury he saw two white men leave the racecourse and get into Rodgers’ silver Mercedes. One was about 5ft 6ins while the other was 6ft.

Pc Lowe claimed co-defendant Shaun Lynch got into the car, with Rodgers at the wheel, and was followed several minutes later by two other unnamed men. They all drove to the airport.

However, Christopher Sallon QC, for Shaun Lynch, claimed the officer was mistaken.

He had actually seen two short men. They were jockeys Seb Sanders and Darryll Holland, who are both about 5ft 3ins, Mr Sallon told the court.

Mr Sallon also suggested the two riders were joined by Fallon and in total there were five men in the car, rather than four as recorded by the police.

He said: “I’m going to suggest that you are just wrong about it and you have missed a crucial piece of observation and that Kieren Fallon was one of the men in the car and all of the men got into the car at the same time.”

Pc Lowe replied: “What I saw is in my statement.”

Mr Sallon suggested: “Mr Rodgers was driving, Shaun Lynch was sitting the front passenger seat, Mr Sanders was sitting behind the driver Mr Rodgers, Darryll Holland was in the middle and Kieren Fallon was sitting behind the passenger seat.”

Mr Lowe: “I cannot answer that question.”

John Kelsey-Fry QC, representing Fallon, also challenged the surveillance evidence on the same night.

According to the police log when Shaun Lynch called Rodgers on his mobile phone at 8.49pm that night he was already in the Mercedes with Rodgers.

He argued that it was a “matter of common-sense” that Shaun Lynch got into the car after 8.49pm otherwise Rodgers would have been sitting next to him when Lynch called.

Undercover Detective Constable Robert Stirling recalled the moment when his secret surveillance of Rodgers was foiled.

Mr Stirling, who was in plain-clothes and in an unmarked police car, was trailing Rodgers and three others in his Mercedes in the early hours on May 27 2004.

They were travelling in the pitch black with no other cars around from Newmarket, Suffolk, towards Cowlinge where Fallon used to live, the jury was told.

Rodgers turned his Mercedes into an unmarked road allowing Mr Stirling to pass.

Rodgers then reversed out of the lane and followed Mr Stirling, who turned right down a narrow farm lane.

He told the jury: “I saw the headlights approaching and a vehicle followed me into the lane. It was the same vehicle I had been following.

“It had its full beam on, came up behind my vehicle and sat there for 60 seconds at most.”

It then moved back down the lane. Mr Stirling reverses his car and drives back to Newmarket where he meets a colleague on the town boundary.

He then spots Rodgers passing in the Mercedes and gets back in his car. Rodgers turns the Mercedes around and blocks Mr Stirling’s path on the way back.

Mr Stirling told the court: “I could see Miles Rodgers was driving. There was at least two other occupants in the vehicle. It came along slowly, slower than 5mph. I looked him in the face and gestured move away and I pulled away.”

He sees the Mercedes do a three-point turn and then trail him from about 100 yards back to Newmarket.

Mr Stirling deliberately drove over a mini-roundabout alerting the attention of a marked police car, whose presence scared the Mercedes off, it was claimed.

Peter Kelson QC, for Rodgers, said that “for an awkward moment” the secret surveillance had been spotted.

He said: “Rather than you being discreetly in pursuit, it appears that he (Rodgers) is following you and to some extent pestering you.

“You were trying to pull out and he is obstructing you.

“He is gazing in your vehicle and eyeballing you.”

Mr Kelson noted that there was nothing to distinguish Mr Stirling as a police officer at that point.

The jury also heard from British Horseracing Authority vet Howard Robinson, who had been on duty at Lingfield on March 2 2004, when Fallon lost a race aboard Ballinger Ridge.

Fallon had appeared to stop riding the horse when around 10 lengths clear in the home straight and was caught on the line by Rye, allegedly netting the conspiracy in the region of £60,000.

Mr Robinson said he clearly remembers the race because of the “peculiar way the horse ran” but he found no physical reason for his performance.

Mr Robinson said: “There is nothing at all to explain its running. I examined its heart and lungs with a stethoscope, saw the horse move, did a critical check with the horse’s legs to assess any abnormality and found nothing at all.

“It was normal, completely normal.”

Fallon, 42, formerly of Newmarket, Cambridgeshire, but now of Tipperary, Ireland; Fergal Lynch, 29, of Boroughbridge, North Yorkshire; and Darren Williams, 29, of Leyburn, North Yorkshire, deny the charges.

Shaun Lynch, 37, of Belfast, 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. All the defendants are on bail.

The hearing was adjourned to tomorrow.