Lineker brother's sentence cut

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/england/essex/6067372.stm

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The brother of former England football captain Gary Lineker has won a 12-month reduction in his jail sentence of two-and-a-half-years for tax fraud.

Wayne Lineker, 43, of Fyfield, Essex, was jailed in April this year at Southwark Crown Court in London.

The millionaire bar owner had admitted conspiracy to defraud the Inland Revenue of £220,000.

Appeal Court judges cut Lineker's sentence to 18 months after ruling the sentence was "manifestly excessive".

At the original trial Lineker admitted using unsuspecting relatives and friends to ferry foreign currency to Britain from his Lineker's sports bars in Spain.

His manager David Hodges, 43, of Rosebank, Waltham Abbey, Essex, who also pleaded guilty to taking part in the conspiracy between 1 January 1999 and 31 December 2001, was jailed for 20 months.

Lineker owns bars in Spain, Portugal, Cyprus and the Canaries

John Stacey, 56, of Liffstan Way, Southend, Essex, was jailed for 18 months for a conspiracy charge.

The Appeal Court reduced both Hodges' and Stacey's sentence to 12 months.

The scam worked by sending bundles of pesetas and escudos from bars in Spain, Portugal and the Canary Islands into Britain using the unsuspecting "mules".

Once in Britain, the money was laundered into sterling, first through a bureau de change and later using a series of money exchange deals arranged by Stacey.

The court heard that once it had been "cleaned up", the cash would be handed back to Lineker, whose older brother captained England during a high-profile international career before becoming Match of the Day presenter.