Team GB star Greg Rutherford reveals he ‘felt sick’ at finding out ex-manager cheated him of £48,000 to fund gambling addiction as fraudster caged for 18 months
Strictly Come Dancing star and long jump champion spoke out as sports agent Gaby Stone was sent to prison for fraud
OLYMPIC gold medallist Greg Rutherford said he was left "feeling sick" after finding out his former manager cheated him out of £48,000 to fuel a gambling addiction.
The Strictly Come Dancing star spoke out as Gaby Stone, 34, was jailed for for 18 months after admitting fraud by abuse of position.
Stone, sole director and company secretary of GSE Management, took tens of thousands in sponsorship and appearance fees between October 2014 and March 2015.
The long jump champion was left under "severe financial pressure" while training for the Olympics in Rio last year, when he won bronze to add to his gold in London in 2012.
Judge John Hillen QC said: "Mr Rutherford, in his victim impact statement, stated that the thought that someone who had responsibility for a large part of his life and work, someone who he had placed trust in, had in fact been dishonest, left him feeling sick."
The athlete and his family had faced "emotional distress" due to financial concerns, not least the worry that they would face income tax on money he had not received from Stone, the judge said.
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Stone, of Marylebone, London, has also represented gymnast Louis Smith and two-time gold medallist boxer Nicola Adams.
Max Hardy, prosecuting, told Blackfriars crown court: "Mr Stone was Mr Rutherford's manager for a number of years having been introduced to him in 2009.
"The contractual relationship was that Mr Stone sourced contractual protects for Mr Rutherford to be involved."
Stone would receive 20 per cent of the athlete's commercial earnings, the court heard.
But Greg, who came seventh on last year's Strictly, would have to wait up to three months for him to pass on his 80 per cent share.
The last payment made by Stone to Rutherford was in September 2014 - but he continued to rake in money until August 2015, the court heard.
In March 2015 Stone told the athlete he had lost £40,000 through a "bad investment". But he later admitted he gambled his client's money away.
Judge Hillen told the crook: "You lied to him, because what you were doing was to repeatedly betray the trust that he had placed in you, by getting your finances into such a state that you were spending money on gambling which should have been spent on your business and paying him what was owed to him.
"You told him that he had made a bad investment and that had resulted in him losing £40,000."
Rutherford sacked him and went to cops after repeated requests for his money.
Accountants initially calculated Stone owed Rutherford £62,800 but the figure was later reduced to £48,488.
Mr Hardy said: "Prior to 2014 he accepts that he behaved recklessly in regards to contractual obligations but after October 2014 it became dishonest."
He added: "It is in no dispute that Mr Stone had, for some time, a serious gambling problem."
Since his last court appearance in January Stone's friends and family have rallied round to repay Rutherford in full.
But the judge told him: "No one can buy their way out of prison."
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