Goalkeeper `got pounds 104,000 after series of defeats'

Former Wimbledon goalkeeper Hans Segers received pounds 104,000 in seven different cash payments after a dozen games in which his team lost, a court heard yesterday.

The money, allegedly from a Far Eastern syndicate betting on the outcome of the games, was paid into a Swiss bank account called Gloves 1, a jury at Winchester Crown Court was told.

David Calvert Smith, QC, for prosecution, said one payment of pounds 19,000 came after a crucial relegation game in which Everton beat Wimbledon 3- 2 on 7 May 1994. The result kept Everton in the Premier League. He added that the former Wimbledon player and star of television show Gladiators, John Fashanu, also received two payments totalling pounds 61,000, before his transfer to Aston Villa.

Mr Segers, 34 - who with Mr Fashanu and ex-Liverpool goalkeeper Bruce Grobbelaar is charged with trying to influence the results of football matches - had been in regular telephone contact before and after the 12 games with the fourth defendant Heng Suan Lim, Mr Calvert Smith said. Malaysian born Mr Lim, 31, is said to have received more than pounds 500,000 from the Indonesian syndicate over a four-year period.

The court was told that on 8 November 1993, Mr Segers and Mr Fashanu had paid some of the cash into the same branch of the Republic Bank of New York in Berkeley Square, London within three minutes of each other. Mobile phone records suggested Mr Lim had been in the area at the time.

Mr Calvert Smith said the seven payments to Mr Segers took place during 1993-94 season and at the start of the 1994-95 season in sums of pounds 6,000, pounds 14,000, pounds 11,000, pounds 15,000, pounds 20,000 and two payments of pounds 19,000. All took place after Wimbledon defeats, including a string of four losses in October 1994, Mr Calvert Smith added. There was no evidence for Mr Segers' claims that the money came from crimes committed in his his youth and the payments stopped at the time The Sun newspaper "exposed" allegations of match-fixing in November 1994.

The newspaper's allegations relied heavily on the claims of Chris Vincent, a former business partner of Mr Grobbelaar, who is due to give evidence on Monday, said Mr Calvert Smith.

The prosecution said telephone records showed contact before and after games between Mr Grobbelaar, Mr Fashanu and Mr Lim and Mr Segers, Mr Fashanu and Mr Lim. The last two were also in regular contact with Indonesia, in particular two people called Johannes Josef and his partner Elly, from whose bank accounts the money for the players allegedly came.

Mr Fashanu, Mr Grobbelaar and Mr Lim deny giving and receiving money in a conspiracy to influence the results of games, or as a reward for influencing games. Mr Fashanu, Mr Lim and Mr Segers deny a similar charge. Mr Grobbelaar denies a separate charge of accepting pounds 2,000 from Mr Vincent as a reward or inducement for influencing the result of a game. The case continues on Monday.