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Pro gambler implicated in Fallon race fixing case

A professional gambler is suspected of placing multiple bets under assumed names on races champion jockey Kieren Fallon is accused of fixing, a bookmaker's lawyer said on Thursday.

Miles Rodgers and five others including Fallon are accused of interfering with the running of horses to ensure they lost 27 races in Britain between December 2002 and September 2004.

He and the others are charged with conspiracy to defraud customers who used the online betting site Betfair. All pleaded not guilty at a pretrial hearing.

Rodgers, accused of being the syndicate boss, allegedly used the names of friends and acquaintances to open separate accounts and place several large bets on horses to lose.

Betfair legal adviser David O'Reilly told a jury at the Old Bailey that the site started monitoring the accounts and passed information to the Jockey Club after large sums were placed on a loss for Legal Set, a horse Rodgers part-owned.

"Nine or 10 of these accounts were registered in the Sheffield area," O'Reilly said. "Some were accessed from the same computer and four used the same password."

O'Reilly said the accounts bet a total ?73,000 (US$148,500) on Legal Set to lose, with ?55,000 from an account in the name of Rogers' girlfriend.

The Jockey Club disqualified Rogers for betting on his own horse.

Rodgers is being charged along with jockeys Fergal Lynch and Darren Williams, Lynch's brother Shaun Lynch and Philip Sherkle. Rodgers is also accused of concealing the proceeds of crime.

Fallon was charged in July last year and banned from competing in Britain until after the trial. He has raced in Ireland, Australia and France since being charged.

Fallon, who became British horse racing's champion jockey for the first time in 1997, won the English Derby in 1999, 2003 and 2004. He also won the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, Europe's most prestigious horse race, in Paris on Sunday.
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