Classic-winning owner and 'compulsive gambler' alleged to have created fictitious bookmaker to avoid paying thousands of pounds

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A Classic-winning owner and vice president of Chelsea Football Club falsely claimed financial distress and created an unreliable fictitious bookmaker to avoid paying thousands of pounds in betting losses, a court heard on Tuesday.

Alan Spence, a long-standing owner who raced the likes of Irish St Leger winner Jukebox Jury and Group 1 Royal Ascot winner Profitable, is contesting a claim that he owes David Solomon more than £800,000 in betting losses and damages over a multi-year period.

Spence, who is also vice president of the Racehorse Owners Association (ROA), met Solomon at a lunch club in 2018 and Solomon subsequently offered to place Spence’s bets for him on a range of sports.

After winning initially, Spence built up losses of £621,000 with Solomon at which point he sought a compromise, allegedly untruthfully stating that he was “facing bankruptcy” and that his creditors were accepting 28.2p in the £1 on outstanding debts. Having agreed to the compromise, Solomon received payments reducing the debt.

In addition, Solomon and Spence had entered into a separate arrangement where bets requested to Solomon by third parties would be passed on to Spence to place with bookmakers such as Spreadex and Betfred.

However, Solomon alleges Spence never placed the bets and kept the money for himself, and when pressed for winnings to be returned invented an unscrupulous foreign bookmaker named ‘George’ who had not paid him out and disappeared owing more than £250,000.

Duncan Heath, representing Solomon, told the City Court House: “We say this is barefaced deception. It looks like Mr Spence made a conscious decision not to place these bets. That’s fine while Mr Solomon is not winning, but he goes on a winning streak in July 2022 and at this point we say Mr Spence invented ‘George’ as a means of saying he doesn’t have to pay. 

“We say there are three large-scale pieces of deception: a millionaire saying he was insolvent, saying he put bets on when he didn’t, and that ‘George’ is an absolute falsehood.”

Jukebox Jury: raced for long-standing owner Alan SpenceCredit: Edward Whitaker

Entrepreneur Spence, 78, sold his travel and shipping company Britannic Travel for £45 million in 2003. He was described as “a compulsive, heavy gambler” who had lost “several million pounds gambling over the course of his lifetime” by his defence, citing the example of a loss of £2.5m on stakes of £22.5m with Spreadex between 2019 and 2022. He is registered with betting self-exclusion service GamStop.

Solomon, 78, described his betting as taking place between “friends and acquaintances”, laying bets in some instances and helping “shrewd” punters get their bets on, adding that his main business had been in office furniture and equipment.

However, Spence claims the debt is unenforceable as Solomon was in fact acting as a de facto illegal bookmaker, either in that he was laying bets himself when not permitted to do so, or acting as an intermediary.

During cross-examination on Tuesday, Solomon detailed how he had used bank accounts with pseudonyms to hide the identity of who was betting and that he had relationships with people, such as professional punters, that went outside the scope of “friends and acquaintances” who he was passed bets on to Spence to enable them to be placed with bookmakers.

Reuben Comiskey, representing Spence, said: “We’ve established here that there’s three people with whom you had a purely business relationship.”

The hearing continues.

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