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The Nairobian

Ex-Caen coach jailed over 500,000 euro tax fraud

Football

By AFP | Jan 31, 2017

Former Caen coach and self-confessed casino addict Franck Dumas was on Tuesday jailed for three years by a French court in a 500,000 euros tax fraud case.

Dumas, who won the French league title as a defender with Monaco, was not in court in Caen for sentencing. Ten months of the jail term was suspended.

The 49-year-old was reported by his lawyer Philippe Veber to be in Equatorial Guinea.

Veber said the former football star would make "an immediate" appeal.

"They are not judging the fraud, they are judging someone from the world" of football, he added.

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Dumas has previously blamed a gambling habit on his financial problems.

"At no time did I mean to conduct fraud, I was addicted to gambling," he told a hearing in December.

"That's what got me into this mess. I could get through 100,000 euros a month from gambling," Dumas added, declaring that he had given up the habit.

"I'm French, I love my country," Dumas told the court. "Well then, pay your taxes," presiding judge Christophe Subts replied.

Subts told a hearing in September that Dumas owed tax authorities 557,496 euros and in 2012 had earned 1.39 million euros.

"In sport sometimes money seems to disappear," the judge added.

"You should have settled your debts."

A tax inspector, Michel Dieder, told the September hearing that Dumas was a gambling "high roller" who "made large cash withdrawals and it seems he was gambling at casinos. He had no problem blowing his money."

Subts said that a large portion of Dumas's 2012 income had been paid into a joint account with his wife.

This account was later shifted into his wife's name and a sum of 450,000 euros was left undeclared to the tax authorities.

Dumas played more than 500 top flight games with Caen, Monaco and Marseille and won the French Ligue 1 title with Monaco in 1997. He also made six appearances in a brief spell at Newcastle United in 2000.

He was coach of Caen between 2005 and 2012, when he was sacked.

Dumas also played in Jean Tigana's talented Monaco side which famously put Manchester United out of the Champions League in 1998 on away goals after a 1–1 draw at Old Trafford.