FOOTBALL hooligan Aaron Cawley, who was jailed for assaulting goalkeeper Chris Kirkland during a televised match, has now appeared in court – for fraud.
The 22-year-old from Blenheim Square, in Hester's Way, was one of a gang of eight who stole up to £20,000 from Tesco and Sainsbury's.
Along with his brother Michael, 23, of the same address, he used authorisation codes from supervisors at the supermarkets to reprint multiple copies of the same receipt.
They then toured around the country taking stolen goods such as console games and electric toothbrushes to the supermarkets and using the receipts to get a refund.
The eight, all from the Cheltenham, would visit five supermarkets a day, earning between £500 and £600 daily.
The main conspirators were gang leader John Dymock, 26, of Maida Vale Apartments, Mead Road, Leckhampton, who was sentenced to 40 months in jail, and his girlfriend Rebecca Church, 20, of the same address, who was sentenced to an 18-month suspended sentence and 175 hours of community service.
His "captain" was Michael Cawley, who organised the crimes and distracted staff. He was fuelled by a gambling addiction and got three years in jail.
The others were Thomas Bannerman, 26, of Princess Elizabeth Way in Hester's Way, sentenced to 175 hours of unpaid work; Nathan Aubrey, 31, of Buckingham Avenue, Rowanfield, who got 150 hours of unpaid work; and Louis Upton, 34, of Court Road, Prestbury, who was given 150 hours of unpaid work. The three each got a 12-month community order.
James Orton, 26, of Hawthorn Road, Hester's Way, got a nine-month suspended sentence and 175 hours of unpaid work.
Aaron Cawley was sentenced to 12 months, suspended for 18 months, and 200 hours of unpaid work. The court heard he had been involved for just two days before being arrested.
The gang pleaded guilty to various charges including attempted fraud, fraud, and conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation, when they appeared at Cambridge Crown Court.
Prosecutor, Charles Falk told the court: "This was a clever and relatively sophisticated repeat fraud against Tesco and to a lesser extent Sainsbury's."
Judge Gareth Hawkesworth called the team "brazen", saying it had been a sophisticated fraud that required careful and organised planning.
Cawley was jailed for 16 weeks in October for assaulting Chris Kirkland in a Sheffield Wednesday versus Leeds match. He also received a lifetime ban from his beloved Leeds United. He was released from prison just weeks ago.
The offences happened between February 2011 and March 2012.
