Jailed JJB boss Ronnie was ‘dishonest in the extreme’
THE disgraced former boss of JJB Sports began a four-year jail sentence this week.
Chris Ronnie, 52, from Wilmslow was found to have taken more than £1m in kickbacks from suppliers while he was running Wigan-based JJB.
Passing sentence Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith told Ronnie, who used the illegal payments from suppliers to buy a property in Florida, his actions had been “dishonest in the extreme”.
Judge Loraine-Smith added: “This was a flagrant and disgraceful breach of your duty as a CEO of a public limited company.”
He said Ronnie was guilty of a “very greedy” fraud and had not shown “any sign of remorse or even embarrassment about what you have done”.
The businessman had already spent the weekend on remand at Wandsworth Prison in London after being refused bail at Southwark Crown Court on Friday.
Business associates David Ball and David Barrington, who controlled the firms which made the payments to Ronnie, were both sentenced to 18 months in prison.
The Serious Fraud Office was alerted to the cover-up by a computer engineer who was asked by Ball and Barrington to delete emails including details of their deals with Mr Ronnie.
Ronnie was sentenced to four years in prison for three offences of fraud totalling around £1m, to run concurrently, and one year in prison for two offences of furnishing false information, also to run concurrently.
David Ball and David Barrington, beneficial owners of Fashion and Sport Ltd, a company that sold clothing brands and supplied stock to JJB, were each sentenced to 18 months in prison for two offences of attempting to pervert the course of justice, to run concurrently.
The SFO’s investigation into JJB centred on Mr Ronnie’s failure to declare his interest in contracts entered into by JJB Sports with Fashion and Sport Ltd as well as attempts by Mr Ball and Mr Barrington to destroy evidence and mislead the SFO.
Of Mr Ball and Mr Barrington, the judge said: “Both of you did whatever you could to frustrate the SFO investigation… The concealment [of incriminating evidence] took place over a period of years and resulted in these proceedings. Perverting the course of justice took place before and after the case came to trial.”
Commenting on the sentencing, director of the Serious Fraud Office David Green CB QC said: “These defendants contrived to hide information regarding their dealings from both JJB’s board of directors and the SFO once its investigation began.
“That the investigation resulted in these convictions, despite such attempts to derail it, reflects the SFO’s determination in tackling complex and elaborate fraud.”
