Arsenal never do anything wrong
arsenal - the guilty men
Throughout their history, Arsenal personnel have had problems with the authorities.
Here is a trawl through the misdemeanours of their players and
officials who have been caught red and white handed ...
PETER STOREY
In 1979, he was fined seven hundred pounds and given a six month suspended sentence for running a brothel, the Calypso Massage Parlour in Leytonstone, London.
In 1980, he got three years for financing a plot to counterfeit gold coins.
In 1982, he was given two six month sentences for stealing cars.
In 1990, he was jailed for 28 days for attempting to import 20 pornographic videos from Europe which he’d hidden in his spare tyre in his car.
In 1991, he was given a 28 day suspended sentence for swearing at a traffic warden.
TONY ADAMS
Sentenced to four months in prison in 1990 for drink-driving and reckless driving offences (driving his car into someone's front garden through their garden wall while four times over the limit of alcohol in his blood), found himself handcuffed to a Tottenham Hotspur fan on the way to Chelmsford Prison. He served two months.
Arsenal made sure Adams did not to play football during his time inside in case he got injured.
IAN WRIGHT
Five days inside, aged 17, for non-payment of motoring fines.
GRAHAM RIX
Former Arsenal midfielder was jailed for 12 months in 2003 after being convicted of indecent assault and unlawful sex with a 15-year-old girl.
JERMAINE PENNANT
Jailed for three months after crashing his Mercedes into a lamp post in Aylesbury, Bucks. in 2005 while on loan at Birmingham City. The winger had said he had got lost on a drunken journey from Bristol to London.
He gave his name as Ashley Cole to the Police when caught.
Pennant returned to Birmingham on his release from prison and played with an electronic tag on for a while.
DAVID HILLIER
Best known for his baggage handling of other people's luggage at Heathrow airport in 1995, Hillier was also implicated in some theft of credit cards.
HENRY NORRIS
In 1927, the Daily Mail reported that property developer and Arsenal chairman Henry George Norris had been responsible for the payment of inducements to Charlie Buchan to persuade him to join Arsenal from Sunderland in 1925. The Football League operated a maximum wage at the time and any irregular financial incentives to players outside of the FA's regulations, even though it was thought that many clubs failed to adhere to these rules.
A Football Association investigation uncovered evidence that Norris had dipped into Arsenal's expense accounts for his own personal use and had even stooped to scooping £125 from the sale of the team bus into his own bank account.
Norris tried to sue the Daily Mail and the FA for libel in relation to the charges he had faced. However, in February 1929, the Lord Chief Justice came down in favour of the FA and with this backing, they handed down a life ban to Norris to end any involvement in football he might have wanted to pursue.
MARCUS ARTRY
Artry, 18, had been with the Arsenal youth team for eight years and represented England at under-18 level, but in his
free time attacked women on three occasions between March 2002 and February 2003 along with two other
teenagers in South London.
An attack on a 28-year-old woman on her way home from the pub in south-east London saw Artry and the 14-year-
old taking turns at raping her while the others pinned her down in between two parked cars. Artry claimed the
woman was a prostitute and denied rape, and told jurors how he continued with the assault despite a neighbour
seeing him.
He was convicted of one charge of rape, one of indecent assault and one of indecency with a child. Artry was jailed
for nine years for his part in the 'horrific and terrifying' attacks.
Sentencing Artry and the 14-year-old, Judge Colin Smith QC said: "I sentence both of you for horrific and terrifying
rapes. You both pose a risk of causing serious sexual harm to young women. Women must be protected from you."
RAY PARLOUR
Arrested for an assault on a cab driver will drunk on a pre season tour with Arsenal in Hong Kong.
GEORGE GRAHAM
Found guilty by the FA of taking bungs in transfer dealings while at Arsenal, in conjunction with Scandinavian agent Rune Hauge. Banned from the game for 12 months.
PAUL VAESSEN
Made an impact scoring against Juventus for Arsenal in Europe, but whose later drug addiction following the end of his career at 21 lead to him robbing warehouses and vans and mugging people in the street to pay for his £125 a day habit.
Was a regular in court as he failed to pay his fines.
HERBERT CHAPMAN
Was secretary of Leeds City FC and allowed financial irregularities, involving illegal payments to players, to continue, which led to the club going out of existence in 1919. For his part in the affair, he was banned for life after World War I, but this was later overturned on appeal.
STAN KROENKE
US tycoon Stan Kroenke's dealings in the purchase of shares in the South London club was looked into by the Takeover Panel according to The Sunday Times (03.05.2009), as his holding increased after buying fellow share-holder Danny Fiszman and the panel regarded them as "concert parties" (i.e. working together to take control of the club).
JAMES PURCELL
Purcell, an Arsenal coach who worked with disabled children, was jailed after an incident, when a cyclist criticised his friend's driving and they both beat him up, causing a broken jaw, a broken cheekbone and a fractured skull.
Purcell was drunk and had taken cocaine when the cyclist warned Katie Bonnick about her driving after she nearly knocked him off his bike. Bonnick was also intoxicated when they both attacked Abdul Hossini.
Bonnick was sentenced to three and a half years after pleading guilty to GBH (Grevious Bodily Harm) and Purcell got 30 months for the same offence at Snaresbrook Crown Court in December 2011.
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