Tottenham football manager reveals how fraudster conned him for three years

Harry Redknapp reveals today how he was conned for three years by a fake jockey who he bankrolled in return for racing tips.

The football manager was introduced to the ‘promising apprentice’ one evening at the London casino Les Ambassadeurs.

Redknapp tells the story in his autobiography Always Managing, which is serialised in the Daily Mail this week.

In the series he slams the FA as ‘clueless’, tells of his battle to clear his name over tax fraud charges and describes the devastating effect of the case on his wife Sandra.

The young man at the casino was introduced to him as ‘Lee Topliss’ – the name of a real jockey – and Redknapp, then in charge of Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur, recalled how he seemed a ‘nice kid’.

‘He wasn’t dressed too well, looked like he could do with a few quid, but very open and chatty,’ wrote Redknapp. ‘If you like a bet, he seemed like a good man to know.’

Conversation between the pair turned from racing to football and the ‘jockey’ told how he ‘loved Tottenham – the only problem is I can never get a ticket’. But thanks to the generosity of Redknapp, that was about to change.

‘Suddenly, he was at near enough every home game,’ he said. ‘He’d ring me up, give me a few tips for horses – they usually got beat – and then arrange to come to the match at the weekend.’

‘Lee’ would even enjoy games in the directors’ box at Manchester United and Arsenal – and for one game sat in a private box next to billionaire Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich.

- DAILY MAIL