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Throughout their history, Arsenal
personnel have had problems with the authorities.
Here is a trawl through the misdemeanours of their players and
officials who have been caught red and white handed ...
| PETER STOREY
In 1979, he was fined seven hundred
pounds and given a six month suspended sentence for running a brothel,
the Calypso Massage Parlour in Leytonstone, London.
In 1980, he got three years for financing
a plot to counterfeit gold coins.
In 1982, he was given two six month
sentences for stealing cars.
In 1990, he was jailed for 28 days for
attempting to import 20 pornographic videos from Europe which he’d
hidden in his spare tyre in his car.
In 1991, he was given a 28 day suspended
sentence for swearing at a traffic warden. |
| TONY ADAMS
Sentenced to four months in prison in 1990
for drink-driving and reckless driving offences (driving his car into
someone's front garden through their garden wall while four times over
the limit of alcohol in his blood), found himself handcuffed to a
Tottenham Hotspur fan on the way to Chelmsford Prison. He served
two months. Arsenal made sure
Adams did not to play football during his time inside in case he got
injured. |
IAN WRIGHT
Five days inside, aged
17, for non-payment of motoring fines.
|
| GRAHAM RIX
Former Arsenal midfielder was jailed for
12 months in 2003 after being convicted of indecent assault and unlawful
sex with a 15-year-old girl. |
| JERMAINE PENNANT
Jailed for three months after crashing
his Mercedes into a lamp post in Aylesbury, Bucks. in 2005 while on loan
at Birmingham City. The winger had said he had got lost on a
drunken journey from Bristol to London.
He gave his name as Ashley Cole to the
Police when caught.
Pennant returned to Birmingham on his
release from prison and played with an electronic tag on for a while.
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| DAVID HILLIER
Best known for his baggage handling of
other people's luggage at Heathrow airport in 1995, Hillier was also
implicated in some theft of credit cards. |
HENRY NORRIS
In 1927, the Daily Mail reported that
property developer and Arsenal chairman Henry George Norris had been
responsible for the payment of inducements to Charlie Buchan to persuade
him to join Arsenal from Sunderland in 1925. The Football League
operated a maximum wage at the time and any irregular financial
incentives to players outside of the FA's regulations, even though it
was thought that many clubs failed to adhere to these rules.
A Football Association
investigation uncovered evidence that Norris had dipped into Arsenal's
expense accounts for his own personal use and had even stooped to
scooping £125 from the sale of the team bus into his own bank account.
Norris tried to sue the Daily
Mail and the FA for libel in relation to the charges he had faced.
However, in February 1929, the Lord Chief Justice came down in favour of
the FA and with this backing, they handed down a life ban to Norris to
end any involvement in football he might have wanted to pursue.
|
MARCUS ARTRY
Artry, 18, had been with the Arsenal
youth team for eight years and represented England at under-18 level,
but in his
free time attacked women on three
occasions between March 2002 and February 2003 along with two other
teenagers in South London.
An attack on a 28-year-old woman on her way home from the pub in
south-east London saw Artry and the 14-year-
old taking turns at raping her while the
others pinned her down in between two parked cars. Artry claimed
the
woman was a prostitute and denied rape,
and told jurors how he continued with the assault despite a neighbour
seeing him.
He was convicted of one charge of rape, one of indecent assault and one
of indecency with a child. Artry was jailed
for nine years for his part in the
'horrific and terrifying' attacks.
Sentencing Artry and the 14-year-old, Judge Colin Smith QC said: "I
sentence both of you for horrific and terrifying
rapes. You both pose a risk of causing
serious sexual harm to young women. Women must be protected from you."
|
RAY PARLOUR
Arrested for an assault on a cab driver
will drunk on a pre season tour with Arsenal in Hong Kong.
|
GEORGE
GRAHAM
Found guilty by the FA of
taking bungs in transfer dealings while at Arsenal, in conjunction with
Scandinavian agent Rune Hauge. Banned from the game for 12 months.
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PAUL VAESSEN
Made an impact scoring against Juventus for
Arsenal in Europe, but whose later drug addiction following the end of
his career at 21 lead to him robbing warehouses and vans and mugging
people in the street to pay for his £125 a day habit.
Was a regular in court as he failed to
pay his fines. |
HERBERT CHAPMAN
Was secretary of Leeds City FC and
allowed financial irregularities, involving illegal payments to players,
to continue, which led to the club going out of existence in 1919.
For his part in the affair, he was banned for life after World War I,
but this was later overturned on appeal. |
|
STAN KROENKE
US tycoon Stan Kroenke's dealings in the
purchase of shares in the South London club was looked into by the
Takeover Panel according to The Sunday Times (03.05.2009), as his
holding increased after buying fellow share-holder Danny Fiszman and the
panel regarded them as "concert parties" (i.e. working together to take
control of the club). |
|
JAMES PURCELL
Purcell, an Arsenal coach who worked with
disabled children, was jailed after an incident, when a cyclist
criticised his friend's driving and they both beat him up, causing a
broken jaw, a broken cheekbone and a fractured skull.
Purcell was drunk and had taken cocaine when
the cyclist warned Katie Bonnick about her driving after she nearly
knocked him off his bike. Bonnick was also intoxicated when they
both attacked Abdul Hossini.
Bonnick was sentenced to three and a half
years after pleading guilty to GBH (Grevious Bodily Harm) and Purcell
got 30 months for the same offence at Snaresbrook Crown Court in
December 2011.
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