Australian champion jockey Chris Munce was sentenced to 30 months in jail yesterday after he was convicted by a Hong Kong court of conspiring to trade tips in return for bets.
Presiding judge Kevin Browne said that he was "satisfied beyond reasonable doubt" that Munce, who rode the 1998 Melbourne Cup winner Jezabeel, agreed to swap tips for bets placed on his behalf by a businessman.
In a case that has attracted attention in racing circles worldwide, the judge said Munce had abused the trust of the trainers he rode for and had harmed the integrity of racing in Hong Kong.
PHOTO: AP
"He entered into an arrangement with the [racing authorities]" and was in breach of that contract, Browne said. "That is where the criminality lies."
Munce, 37, was arrested by the anti-corruption police last July with HK$250,000 (US$32,000) stuffed into his jeans pockets along with a piece of paper with notations allegedly relating to bets on races he had tipped.
The acclaimed jockey, who has also won two of Sydney's prestigious Golden Slipper races, was charged for handing out information on the horses he rode and their likelihood of winning in return for bets being placed on them.
The scam was in breach of the rules of racing in Hong Kong, which stipulate that no rider may gamble or trade insider information.
He denied the charge of conspiracy as well as an allegation that he rode races to suit the tips he had been given.
Munce circumvented the ban on jockeys placing bets by approaching local businessman Dinesh Daswani, a 31-year-old racing enthusiast. Daswani acted as a go-between who passed information to an elderly businessman called Andy Lau (劉維正), who in turn placed huge bets of up to HK$20,000 on the jockey's behalf.
When the horse won, Munce collected the winnings, minus a 30 percent broker's fee for Daswani and the initial stake which was returned to Lau. When the horse lost, however, Lau absorbed the hit.
Lau benefited from the deal by laying his own bets on the horses Munce tipped.
The three cashed in on 18 races Munce won between December 2005 and July last year.
With a tips success rate of 72 percent they collected hundreds of thousands of dollars, which was delivered to Daswani at first during clandestine meetings with Lau in hotel lobbies and later by direct bank debit.
Last year, however, the relationship went sour and Munce and Daswani cut Lau out and replaced him with Daswani's uncle, Kamal Daswaney. After Munce was arrested, Daswani and his uncle turned evidence in return for legal immunity.
But the judge called into question the evidence offered by Daswani, saying it often conflicted with statements he had originally made to anti-graft officials.
"There were a significant number of discrepancies," Browne told the court yesterday. "But I am sure beyond reasonable doubt that the defendant did enter into some sort of arrangement" in which he traded tips.
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