Former pro footballer Stephen Oleksewycz, 39, has been sentenced to 27 months imprisonment by Leeds Crown Courtfor fraud offences and acting as a company director while an undischarged bankrupt. He was also required to pay compensation within three months to the two creditors he defrauded.
Oleksewycz, from Halifax, started in the events promotion industry following his retirement as a professional footballer due to injury. He established his company, ‘An Exp With Ltd’, in February 2016 with himself as sole director but he was made bankrupt later that year due to an outstanding debt of over £16,000.
Individuals who have gone bankrupt are subject to certain restrictions, in particular it is a criminal offence for a bankrupt to act as a company director, or to manage or promote a company, without express permission obtained at court.
Oleksewycz did not have permission, however he continued to act as a director of An Exp With Ltd, which he used to deliver ‘An Experience With’ event in February 2017 involving Conor McGregor, the mixed-martial arts fighter.
The fraud offences related to this event, where Oleksewycz sent fake documents to the venue company, EventCity, and the company streaming the event, Groovy Gecko.
When both companies contacted Oleksewycz to advise they had not received their fees to run the event, Oleksewycz sent them doctored bank documents purporting to show the payments had been made, as a stalling tactic in the days leading up to the event. This succeeded, and both companies felt they had to proceed in the hope the lack of payments were due an honest mistake and would be addressed, or risk the event collapsing.
However, after the event took place Groovy Gecko did not receive any payment and was owed over £15,000. EventCity was paid just £5,000 of the outstanding total, which was nearly £80,000. Both companies were then informed that An Exp With Ltd had gone into liquidation.
Glenn Wicks, Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service, said:”Acting as a company director while being an undischarged bankrupt is a serious offence, and to compound this Stephen Oleksewycz deliberately defrauded two businesses who gave him the benefit of the doubt to run an event despite their concerns about his behaviour.”
