Message to ALL Surrey Cricket Board Club Contacts

 

I write to you all as Director of Development of the Surrey Cricket Board having received various communications over the last week with regards to a series of thefts at our local cricket clubs.

 

Please pass this message in this email to all of your players at your club.

 

Last Wednesday, we received and forwarded on information about a serious theft that had taken place the previous weekend [on Saturday 26 April 2014] at Ham and Petersham CC and was linked to a scam involving a new player wanting to join a club. We circulated via our Cricket Development Officers to our club network. The club were concerned that the person may strike again at another local club - AND HE HAS AT ADDISCOMBE CC [on Saturday 3 May 2014]!!

 

 

More specific details of the experiences recently from both clubs are shown below:

 

From Geoff Bond at Ham & Petersham CC:

A new player contacted us a couple of weeks ago by email asking to play. He was selected to play on Sunday and turned up on Saturday to watch at 12.30.  He was very friendly and said he had moved from Dartford to Surbiton. He was very helpful even buying some sawdust and helping with tea items. He asked to use the toilet a couple of times as he said he had a stomach upset then hay fever.

 

After the match two players discovered they were had been robbed – with two sets of car keys and some cash missing. Unfortunately one of these cars had been stolen.

 

The new player had by this time disappeared and on looking further we found numerous concerns over him. He did not seem to know Surbiton even though he said he lived there, he offered a bag to the opposition and asked for their valuables, at one point he was in the changing room but had locked the door from the inside, he used a different name on email to the one he introduced himself using, he failed to show up for the match on Sunday.  

 

The police were called and are following up on the incident but he clearly knew how cricket clubs work and has played cricket at some point. He was about 30 years old, 5’9”, mixed race, with a scar beneath his left eye.

 

I am not sure how you deal with things like this but I am pretty confident he has struck before and will strike again.

 

 

From David Moore at Addiscombe CC:

So that you can report to others how this chap works the scenario is as follows.  During the week before the Saturday he turns up at a club he will make contact with the Club Captain or someone else from the Club whose details he has probably ascertained from the Internet. He will make out that he wants to get back into cricket again and implies that he has not been playing while starting a family but his daughter is now 1 or 5 (depending on which story he told to which person) and he wants to join a club again. In Ham & Petersham’s case he arranged to play for them on the Sunday and turned up at their game on the Saturday telling them he was a new player playing on Sunday and wanted to meet them all.

 

 

In Addiscombe’s case he turned up on the Saturday telling us all he had spoken to “Scotty” our club captain and that he was looking to join the club.

 

During the course of the afternoon when he turns up he befriends everyone and, looking back, his aim was to make out to the opposition that he was a Club player or a very good mate of a number of Club players so that the opposition would not view him as suspicious when we were in the field and he was wandering about off it.  He chatted to our barman, offered to help the tea lady and, as I understand it, in Ham & Petersham’s case even offered to look after the valuables’ bag !!!   He told our barman he had a bad stomach and needed to go to the toilet several times – obviously to view the layout of the club and to get into the changing rooms. When the home side he has befriended goes out to field he then moves into the home changing room to clean out their bags etc.  He clearly seemed to have experience of where cricketers might hide things in their bags.

 

This chap is about 5 ft 9/10 and is of an afro-caribbean or mixed race afro-caribbean background. He is very personable but a complete liar and confidence trickster and has clearly had previous experience of what he does. Although he appears to be alone (and you only see one person) it appears he may well be operating with another person – it is possible that when he has obtained the keys of someone’s car he calls his mate who appears in the car park etc, takes the keys and drives the vehicle away, probably taking all the stolen loot with him while he stays around a little longer. This is what appeared to have happened at Ham & Petersham CC.

 

The Ham & Petersham case is being dealt with at Kingston Police Station by Adrian Lewis under Crime No. 0704083/14.  Addiscombe CC’s case is being dealt with at Croydon Police Station under Crime No. 381227/14 by Tony Dayes Tel: 020 8649 0239).  Neither car has yet been recovered and may well not be.

 

I am getting as many statements made as possible by everyone at both Clubs who talked to this chap as there may well be some very relevant things he has said which may give his identity/job etc away.  We also have an email address on which he emailed Ham & Petersham but which I suspect may lead to a dead end but we are investigating it. I will give the police as much information and assistance as I can to make sure they have everything they need to catch this guy.

 

 

Please ensure you are vigilant in your recruitment of new players at your clubs and please report any suspicious activities to the police.

 

Let’s hope that this is our last experience of such events and this individual is apprehended.