John Terry wedding gift linked to credit card con

12 April 2012

England captain John Terry has been dragged into a police investigation into a credit card scam, after it emerged that he had received a wedding gift from a convicted fraudster.


The Chelsea star was spoken to by officers investigating convicted fraudster Faisal Madani.

Detectives believe Terry, 27, was a victim of Madani, who was jailed for nine months in April for 18 counts of fraud.

Target: John Terry and wife Toni received wedding gift from Madani

Target: John Terry and wife Toni received wedding gift from Madani

Jailed: Faisal Madani

Jailed: Faisal Madani

Madani was a guest at Terry's wedding in June and gave the Chelsea defender a wedding gift of a holiday worth tens of thousands of pounds, which police believe was paid for by an illegal credit card.

Madani also arranged a holiday for Newcastle striker Michael Owen. There is no suggestion either footballer has done anything wrong.

Newcastle striker Owen said: 'I was surprised to see him at John Terry’s wedding. I did know that he (Madani) knew lots and lots of people.'

Madani had claimed hundreds of autographs of Premiership stars including Sir Alex Ferguson, Michael Owen, Steven Gerrard, and David Beckham, were genuine - albeit sourced by "shady" means.

They said club workers supplied the memorabilia, paid for with "cash in brown envelopes" and some players took part in signing sessions as "payment in kind" for luxurious holidays abroad.

He then sold the fake signatures for up to £5,000.

At their trial Madani, who was nicknamed Mr Dubai, and his associate Graeme Walker blamed each other for the scam.

In one Trading Standards raid on the shop, 1,000 items were seized and around 20% were found to be faked.

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