BRITAIN:Miles Rodgers, the leader of the alleged "bet to lose conspiracy", in which champion jockey Kieren Fallon is accused of conspiring to throw races, surreptitiously ran a dozen different accounts at the same online betting exchange, Betfair, under the names of friends, neighbours and family, the jury in the race-fixing trial heard yesterday.
Betfair, whose customers and account holders Mr Rodgers, Fallon and four others are accused of defrauding, became so concerned about betting by the Rodgers-controlled accounts it took its information to the Jockey Club who, in turn, called in the police.
Betfair's legal counsel David O'Reilly said Mr Rodgers' account was the first one in the history of the betting exchange that the company "closed for integrity concerns".
The company, based in Hammersmith, west London, had grown hugely in the past few years and even since the time of the original investigation into Mr Rodgers' betting activities between 2002 and 2004.
In 2004 the company had 300,000 registered accounts, the court heard. By the end of last year it had 800,000 account holders. The jury heard that Betfair employs 1,000 people, handles five million bets in 4,500 markets a day and has £150 million (€215 million) in cash.
Defence counsel Peter Kelson QC, for Miles Rodgers, asked Mr O'Reilly if Betfair might then be accurately described as "massive". "Yes, it is pretty big," said Mr O'Reilly, a TCD law graduate who has been legal counsel to the betting exchange since 2002. He said the company "doesn't care who wins or loses, we take our commission".
But the company, whom he said is proud of its audit trail and records every single transaction, did monitor accounts drawn to their attention by others who may have legitimate concerns.
Betfair began monitoring the dozen accounts controlled by Miles Rodgers after large sums were placed on Legal Set, a horse part-owned by Rodgers' syndicate, Platinum Racing.
Mr O'Reilly said their attention had been caught by the fact that the same dozen accounts "frequently bet quite heavily on the same horse in the same race".
Nine or 10 of these accounts were registered in the Sheffield area. Some were accessed from the same computer and four used the same password, he said.
They sometimes accounted for 50 per cent of the betting on a particular market, he said.
The Rodgers accounts bet £73,000 on Legal Set to lose. The largest amount, £55,000, was from an account "joricha", which Mr Rodgers had set up using his partner's name and details but his own date of birth as the memorable question or identifier for operators.
Miles Rodgers (38), a businessman and professional gambler from Barnsley in Yorkshire; Kieren Fallon (42), with an address in Tipperary; Fergal Lynch (29), originally from Derry but with an address at Boroughbridge, Yorkshire, which he shares with his brother and co-defendant Shaun Lynch (38); and Darren Williams (29), from Layburn, Yorkshire, all deny the charge that they conspired to fix races between 2002 and 2004. Mr Rodgers is additionally charged with laundering the proceeds of crime.
The trial is today expected to hear evidence from the Jockey Club, which was the racing regulatory authority at the time of the alleged frauds.