www.telegraph.co.uk
Ipswich Town striker Michael Chopra charged with race fixing by British Horseracing Authority
Chopra, 28, is one of three footballers charged with breaches of the rules of racing including offering a bribe to jockey Andrew Heffernan, following a lengthy investigation by the BHA.
Chopra, Nottingham Forest midfielder James Coppinger, and former Manchester United and England under-21 international Mark Wilson, currently unattached, are alleged to have conspired with Heffernan to fix races.
Chopra, Coppinger and Wilson are all charged with conspiring to “commit a corrupt or fraudulent practice” as part of a fixing ring that also included five other individuals.
Chopra and Wilson are also charged with offering bribes to Heffernan.
If found guilty of the charges the footballers face a minimum three-year ban from involvement with racing, including attending racecourses.
The Football Association is aware of the charges but is unlikely to take any action against the players immediately. It will let the BHA process run its course before considering any disciplinary measures.
While club owners and directors can face sanctions for breaches of the rules of other sports, there are no regulations directly addressing the issue in relation to players.
Heffernan, who is now based in Australia, faces five charges of corruption, including one of stopping a horse, one of accepting a bribe and two of breaking the rules regarding the use of inside information. It is alleged that he passed information to Chopra and the others charged, and that they used the information to lay horses to lose on betting exchanges.
If found guilty of stopping a horse – deliberately preventing it winning – Heffernan could be banned for eight years.
The charges relate to 12 races in 2010 and 2011, in three of which Heffernan is alleged to have stopped his mount.
The charges allege that Chopra backed three horses to lose, or asked others to do so on his behalf, using information provided by Heffernan. The horses were Wanchai Whisperer (January 28 2011 at Lingfield); Gallantry (February 2 2011 at Kempton) and Silver Guest (February 9 2011, also at Lingfield).
Heffernan, 24, who rode as an apprentice for Mick Channon and Mark Johnston, moved to Australia to race earlier this year, and is attached to the Paul Perry stable in New South Wales. He is understood to have been stood down from riding by the Australian authorities following the charges.
Chopra, who has scored three times for Ipswich this season, has admitted to a long-standing gambling addiction and has claimed to have lost more than £1m as a result.
In 2011 he was admitted for treatment at the Sporting Chance clinic and commuted from the addiction treatment centre to training and matches.
In an attempt to help him Ipswich have also at times paid his monthly wages directly to those he owes significant amounts. when he signed for the club in June 2011 Ipswich paid him £250,000 to help settle his debts.
Speaking in November 2011, Chopra talked about his gambling habit.
"Your first bet's your worst bet. As the years have come along and I've earned more money I've started to gamble more. I was gambling up to £20,000 a day at times. As soon as I'd step over the white line I would focus on football – but as soon as I got to the dressing room I would check my phone to see if I'd won.
"As a gambler you want to be playing to get the appearance money. I was playing through injury to cover a debt."
Chopra, who is a Newcastle fan, revealed he left Cardiff for Sunderland because the signing-on fee would pay off a gambling debt.
"In my first season at Cardiff I had a gambling debt from when I was at Newcastle. I had to leave Cardiff and sign for another team to pay that debt off. I have probably lost between £1.5m and £2m on gambling."
Coppinger, 31, joined Forest in August from Doncaster, where he made 263 appearances in an eight-year spell. He has made two appearances for his new club this season.
His Twitter profile page @copster26 reads: “Success comes from good decisions. good decisions come from experience. Experience comes from bad decisions.”
Wilson joined United as a trainee in 1997, playing three times for the first team and once for England under-21s, in 2000, before joining Middlesbrough in 2001 for £1.5m. He has played for 11 other clubs, including a one-year spell in the US playing for Dallas FC. His most recent club was Oxford United, but he was released earlier this year.
In a statement Paul Scotney, the BHA’s Director of Integrity Services, said that High court orders had been sought to obtain the phone records of some of those involved.
“The charges BHA has issued today are the result of a long and complicated investigation,” he said. “This process has taken significant time and resources. However, investigations such as these are very similar to fraud investigations and as such are complex and time consuming. Furthermore, we encountered difficulties in obtaining telephone records from certain individuals who refused to co-operate. This resulted in us having to make a number of applications to the High Court for orders against their mobile telephone service providers for disclosure of the relevant records.
“We hope that today’s announcement demonstrates our commitment to deterring and detecting wrongdoing and taking action against those who we believe to have breached the Rules. However, racegoers and those betting on British Racing should be reassured that instances of this nature are extremely rare and that the overwhelming majority of races are free of suspicion.”
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