Northampton Town: Ex-chairman's wife must repay £418k or lose home

Northampton Town's East Stand remains unfinished

The wife of a football club's former chairman must repay more than £418,000 to a council by June or face eviction, a meeting was told.

Northampton Borough Council has attempted to recover £10.25m loaned to Northampton Town in 2013 and 2014, which has since disappeared.

Some of the money meant for the stadium redevelopment was spent on a property belonging to Christina Cardoza.

Leader Jonathan Nunn said the loan had "cast a cloud" over the council's work.

Northampton Town Football Club, under David Cardoza and his father Anthony, borrowed the money for the proposed redevelopment of Sixfields stadium and nearby land.

David Cardoza's wife Christina must repay £418,000 or have her family home seized

However, work on the stadium was not completed after contractors went unpaid.

A police investigation into what happened to the money from the loan has been completed and the Crown Prosecution Service is considering what action to take.

In 2019, the High Court heard how some of the money was used to remodel David Cardoza's house in Church Brampton, Northamptonshire.

He transferred ownership of the house to his wife in 2015, which a High Court judge ruled was an attempt to avoid potential future creditors when the loan money disappeared.

'Very difficult situation'

The property has since been sold, but Mrs Cardoza must pay the new West Northamptonshire Council £418,709 by 2 June or the current family home will be put up for sale by the authority, after it was granted an order.

Northampton Borough Council is set to be replaced by the new unitary authority on 1 April.

Borough council leader Jonathan Nunn told the council's cabinet he was "angry" about the loan

It was one of multiple "recovery streams" the council has used to attempt to recover some of the loan amount, according to a report presented to the borough council's cabinet on Wednesday.

The report said more than £131,000 had been secured from the sale of a property, with an estimated £280,000 expected from the sale of another.

The authority also hopes to receive money from the bankruptcy of Anthony Cardoza and from the liquidation of 1st Land, the company which was set up to rebuild the stadium.

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Mr Nunn told the cabinet meeting recovering the money had been "fairly hard work", and not as "far reaching" as he wanted.

He also conceded the sums received "don't go anywhere near recovering the full amount" but hoped the council would be able to recover more following any court case.

Labour's Danielle Stone asked Mr Nunn whether it would be "more prudent to wait until after police action" to recover the money.

Mr Nunn replied it was a "very difficult situation", adding: "There was a need to act fairly promptly. I would feel uncomfortable to say to residents we didn't do anything."