Rugby club 'disgust' as £28k fraudster to repay £1

The rugby club's president says its committee has not been able to appeal for financial support for five years because the case was ongoing

A rugby club president has said a drug-addicted couple who admitted defrauding the Cornish club out of £28,000 have "got away with it scot-free" after they were told to pay back £1 each.

Truro Crown Court heard on Tuesday that Katie Curgenven, who was treasurer of the Redruth Albany Rugby Football Club, used its bank account to pay for a cocaine habit she shared with partner Darren Curgenven.

The 36-year-old, of Bellevue, Redruth, admitted fraud and was jailed for two years, suspended for two years. Her partner, 44, of Chapel Terrace, Illogan, also admitted fraud and was jailed for 15 months, suspended for two years.

Club president Simon Ferguson said he was "a little bit disgusted".

During the proceeds of crime hearing, Judge Simon Carr said the Curgenvens would be known in the local community as the couple who had defrauded the rugby club and told them, "that will follow you to your graves".

Rugby club president Simon Ferguson says the fraud has been "a kick in the teeth"

Mr Ferguson told the BBC the club had struggled with player recruitment and funds in 2018, but the team had worked hard to recover from that before Katie Curgenven, also known as Katie Stevens, joined in 2019 and stole the funds.

"We put a lot of miles in, a lot of effort to overcome that and then suddenly you get kicked in the teeth once more by having all of your financial security taken out from under you," he added.

He said the treasurer had started at the club in 2019 because she had some financial experience and her father had previously been a club president.

Mr Ferguson said she had changed bank accounts, used the club's funds, had run up bills and stolen bar stock during the Covid-19 lockdowns.

He said £20,000 of the money taken had been "long-term profits from over the bar, from having those social activities, from hiring out the rooms in the club" and the remaining £8,000 was from stolen stock.

"It was a lot of years of graft and careful stewardship, which created quite a healthy bank balance and that's something that isn't going to come back overnight," he said.

Of the fact the couple only had to pay back £1 each, he said he was "very disappointed and a little bit disgusted to be honest".

Players had to have cold showers as the boiler was broken and there were no funds, the president says

Judge Carr said it had taken five years to get the case to court "for some inexplicable reason", which had not been the fault of the club.

Mr Ferguson said: "We couldn't share what had happened so we couldn't appeal for support because it was an ongoing police matter and it was absolutely wearing on everyone involved."

He said the 90-year-old club nearly had to close while the case was ongoing.

The boiler was broken for two years so players had to have cold showers in the winter, which meant the club could not ask for player subscriptions, he said.

"Sometimes it would cost £500 a week to put the coolers on to keep the beer chilled and it was very basic choices as to, 'are we going to get enough beer bought to keep the lights on to be able to pay for the electric for the day?'.

"Morale had plummeted," he added.

Mr Ferguson explained the club had "started to turn the corner" after the court case, with new players and volunteers joining and a new director of rugby, Peter Joyce.

Reflecting on the fraud, the club president offered some advice to other groups who relied on volunteers.

"Keep on top of all the basics, which perhaps are easy to overlook when there's been things done a certain way for X amount of years and you have people that you know and trust in position," he said.

"Make sure you have those regular committee meetings, that there is feedback from the treasurers of the current state of finances, that you see the statements and there's more than one signatory on the account.

"You have to trust, but you need to have the oversight with it."