Ex-Chesterfield chairman jailed for fraud

Last updated : 22 September 2005 By Luke Thornhill
Conman Darren Brown, 34 and from Wingerworth in Derbyshire, used more than £800,000 of club funds to prop up other failing businesses and pay off his own debts.

He used club funds to pay a £55,000 deposit on a house and disguised payments to himself as wages for club staff.

Brown was jailed at Nottingham Crown Court in November last year after admitting two charges of fraudulent trading while at the club, though legal restrictions prevented this being reported at the time.

As a British Gas management trainee in 1997 he set up a print brokers business called Uniform, and bizarrely took ownership of a key client - the Sheffield Steelers Ice Hockey team - in 1999.

His company, UK Sports Group, grew to also take charge of Sheffield Sharks basketball team and the Hull Thunder ice hockey team before buying a controlling stake in Chesterfield with £400,000 raised from business contacts.

Brown was branded by the judge in the case as "entirely reckless" as a businessmen while appearing "ambitious, plausible and persuasive" to his acquaintances.

Within a year of taking charge at Saltergate he had built up debts of almost £2million and tried to sell the club's ground to property developers.

A spokesman for Derbyshire Police Fraud Squad said: "The actions of Darren Brown almost led to the extinction of one of the oldest Football League clubs in the country.

"Had this happened, thousands of local people would have been deprived of the Saturday afternoon football which the local community has enjoyed for over 100 years."

During Brown's reign Chesterfield were deducted nine points and fined £20,000 by the Football Association for irregularities in counting match attendances- just a handful of 90 allegations they made as a result of Brown's actions at the club.

The club was being stripped of assets to shore up Brown's failing businesses - and he was carrying out illegal financial dealings to keep them afloat.