The chairman of a football club tried to con his local council out of a Covid grant by claiming a derelict and tumbledown shed was actually a gym, a court has heard. Owen Duggan falsely made a bid for £4,000 in pandemic support by claiming the shed was a facility used by players of the club but a visit to the site by a suspicious inspector revealed the truth. After a council investigation the police were called in and the defendant found himself in the dock of Swansea Crown Court charged with fraud.
The court heard Duggan is "a true man of the community" and is embarrassed and ashamed of the fake claim he made on behalf of his club. His barrister pointed out that during the pandemic "all manner of claims" were made by a range of people and organisations and "very few of those claims will ever be scrutinised".
Jim Davis, prosecuting, told the court that at the time of the offence Duggan was chairman of Fishguard Sports AFC in Pembrokeshire, which for 80 years until 2017 had played its home matches at St Mary's Field, a plot of land owned by Dioceses of St David's. He said under the terms of an oral agreement struck in 1947 the club would pay a "small amount for rent" annually for use of the field. The court heard that in 2017 the club moved to a new home at Tregroes Park and at that point it emerged it had not paid any rent on St Mary's for the last decade. The church subsequently paid for changing rooms at St Mary's to be demolished but due to issues about insurance liability a derelict shed at the site was left in place and access to the field was closed.
