[Mr Mercury]

Osborne again, on 27 April 2024 - 06:36 PM, said:

Fraudsters are usually very convincing, so would Norton Lea have sold the club if he'd known? I'd like to think not.

Rumoured he knew DB was a wrong un and would fail and then he could return on his white charger to thunderous acclaim!

[born in 1866]

 Siberian Spireite, on 27 April 2024 - 06:31 PM, said:

Dreadfully unfair on Norton Lea. He was old-fashioned and tight but not a criminal. Sure, he sold to a chancer who turned out to be a crim but I was among those who wanted him to sell the club at the time.

Norton Lee was no idiot. He knowingly sold it to a conman, so he could come back riding a white horse, a couple of years later, buy back the club and be proclaimed as a hero. Something he tried, but failed, thanks to CFFS.

[60s 70s Spireite]

 born in 1866, on 28 April 2024 - 10:48 AM, said:

Norton Lee was no idiot. He knowingly sold it to a conman, so he could come back riding a white horse, a couple of years later, buy back the club and be proclaimed as a hero. Something he tried, but failed, thanks to CFFS.

In which case he was an idiot, because he never got paid did he?

[Mr Mercury]

60s 70s Spireite, on 28 April 2024 - 02:21 PM, said:

In which case he was an idiot, because he never got paid did he?

Didn’t Brown use the money the club had accrued over the FAC semi final run and subsequent fee player sales, ie Davis, Holland, Dyche, Mercer and Williams to pay NL?
A shady practice indeed.

[60s 70s Spireite]

Mr Mercury, on 28 April 2024 - 02:31 PM, said:

Didn’t Brown use the money the club had accrued over the FAC semi final run and subsequent fee player sales, ie Davis, Holland, Dyche, Mercer and Williams to pay NL?
A shady practice indeed.

Edit. From David Conn’s report of the sentencing of Brown in 2005.
Lea sold the club for £1.2M to be paid in instalments. Brown paid the first £384k effectively from CFC coffers, but no more. Money was spent bringing in players such as Pollitt, Beckett and Reeves, with £399k going to Brown’s company which also owned Sheffield Sharks and Sheffield Steelers. He pleaded guilty to having taken £800k, including some of the above, out of CFC for his own purposes

CFC was found to be £2M in debt when CFSS eventually bought the shares.

The deal to sell to Brown smacked of Lea’s way of going about his business. And he suffered as a consequence. As did we fans of course.

This post has been edited by 60s 70s Spireite: Today, 03:24 PM

[whittman]

From memory didnt the water become muddier when Brown sold on the club to the car dealer who traded under the name DC cars?

Wasnt it him that CFFS went to with the money raised from the Winding Wheel meeting asking for a place on the board and were presented with the chance to take over the club once the books had been examined by DCs auditors?

CFFS of course then had to take over the debts and the rest as they is history

Or is that a too simplistic view of events with time dimming the memory?

[gordon_brittas]

 whittman, on 28 April 2024 - 02:48 PM, said:

From memory didnt the water become muddier when Brown sold on the club to the car dealer who traded under the name DC cars?

Wasnt it him that CFFS went to with the money raised from the Winding Wheel meeting asking for a place on the board and were presented with the chance to take over the club once the books had been examined by DCs auditors?

CFFS of course then had to take over the debts and the rest as they is history

Or is that a too simplistic view of events with time dimming the memory?

Didn’t the guy receive death threats. Can’t remember his name but from the Manchester area. Seem to remember he wanted no fuss as and we say CFSS were owners in days.