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Chester owner Stephen Vaughan has been banned from acting as a company director for 11 years.
The colourful character attempted to get a VAT repayment of more than £500,000 by using the 'carousel fraud' trick of importing and exporting goods in and out of the country and reclaiming the VAT paid on the original deal before the other company disappears without paying the VAT in the first place.
The transactions were made by Widnes Vikings while Vaughan was in charge, but the repayment of VAT was refused and the club went into Administration in 2007 owing £1.6million. A full report on the case can be seen on the Chester Chronicle website.
Not only is Vaughan disqualified from being a company director, a move that will confirm his failure as a 'fit and proper person' under FA rules, but he will not be allowed control of any business. It is understood he is still in day-to-day control of Chester, and he would have to demonstrate he is no longer in that position when the ban in enforced in two weeks time.
In other Chester news, it is being reported that a number of youth team players have not been paid for several months. The PFA are understood to be involved. The matter has not stopped the club from extending the loan of ex-Bull Mark Beesley for a second month.