A Scots soccer participant has been cleared of conspiring with two friends, ane a professional gambler, to deliberately break up upwardly a yellow card.

That’s despite the player, Elgin City striker Kane Hester, admitting involvement inward a patch to defraud Bet365 of £14,000 (US$16,800) and showing police the profits secret inwards a bedside drawer.

A jury at Dundee Sheriff Court took less than an 60 minutes to crystallise Hester and his friends, Melvin Calvin Parrot and Brodie James Maitland Stewart Myres, of conspiring to spot-fix inwards an endeavor to scam the online sportsbook.

Earlier, the jury had heard that Bet365 detected suspicious betting patterns on Hester’s reservation during a game inwards July 2019.

Elgin plays inward the 5th tier of Scots English soccer. Its opposing in the Betfred Cup fixture that day, Hibernian, is inwards the top out tier, the Scots Premier League.

Caught Red Handed

Investigators found that the threesome had exchanged messages before the jibe in which Hester had in agreement(p) to receive booked. Sure enough, he was shown a yellowness identity card in the 29th narrow for a severe tackle on Hibernian’s Cristian Doidge.

A text sent prior to the gritty from accomplices urged Hester to “bloody half [sic] someone if he’s non got one [a booking] past 30 minutes.”

When police force officers visited Hester at his home, he told them he knew wherefore they were thither and said he would show up them the cash.

I was booked in a spirited and my friends gave me money for it, £2,500)” he said in a financial statement that was recorded on a constabulary officer’s body cam.

The player told the royal court he earned around £1,000 per calendar week (US$1,200) as get down conference professional footballer.

Forgot the Plot

But inwards court, Hester claimed that he completely forgot most the cabal erstwhile the game began. He said he was an fast-growing(a) participant and the defile on Doidge occurred naturally inward the game.

Match umpire Willie Collum backed him up, testifying that he saw “no evidence” that Hester had deliberately got himself booked. The criminal prosecution countered that Hester averaged single booking every 17 games.

The panel bought it, and it also cleared Parrot and Myres of cheating at gambling. The partner off placed five bets that Hester would live set-aside(p) in the game, ranging from £1,000 to £2,000 (US$1,200 to US$2,400) each.

‘Profiting from Losers’

Professional gambler Myres used another friend’s Bet365 account to wager. When asked why, he told the court of law his possess had been suspended because he was winning too much.

“My account was suspended. They are non interested inward having winners. They are only when interested inwards profiting from losers. They did it to kibosh me winning. They do not require to frolic fair. They unrecorded off peoples’ misery,” he explained.

Meanwhile, Hester’s playing life history hangs inward the balance. It’s unclear whether his employer, Elgin City, is prepared to proffer the him do good of the dubiousness quite as generously as the panel inwards Dundee.

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