Ex-Treasurer of English Soccer League Blew £18K of Funds on Gambling and Pizza

Lewis Elliott, the former treasurer of an amateur soccer league in England, confessed to stealing £18,000 (about $22,600) of club money and spending it on gambling and online shopping.

Elliott, who worked for the Huddersfield and District Association, a football league with over 120 years of history, drained the league’s bank account over 18 months from 2019 to 2021.

He used the stolen money to gamble and buy things from Amazon, pizza deliveries, and home-baked goods.

To hide his theft, he opened several secret bank accounts in the name of the soccer organization and transferred some of the money there. He then spent it from those accounts, leaving the main account untouched.

However, in March 2021, he ran out of money and left only £24 (about $30) in the main account. He then sent an email to the chairman of the soccer league, confessing his crime and expressing his regret.

The soccer league was in such a bad financial situation that it had to borrow money from the Football Association, the governing body of soccer in England, to avoid going bankrupt.

In court, Elliott pleaded guilty and said he had a gambling addiction that made him unable to resist the temptation of having access to the league’s money.

The judge gave him a relatively light sentence: a 2-year suspended sentence, 300 hours of unpaid work, and a four-month curfew. The judge took into account that Elliott had not committed any other offenses since his arrest and that he had found a new job and stopped gambling.