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<\/p>\nFormer Macarthur FC captain Ulises D\u00e1vila has avoided jail and has been fined $11,000 for his involvement in an A-League card fixing saga to manipulate betting outcomes.<\/p>\n
A Sydney court heard the 34-year-old’s offending took place in a “very specific set of circumstances” and against a backdrop of considerable grief after the death of his wife.<\/p>\n
D\u00e1vila had been in contact with a Colombian-based contact known as J Col, orchestrating the wagering of yellow card outcomes during a game against Sydney FC in December 2023.<\/p>\n
He recruited teammates Clayton Lewis and Kearyn Baccus to also take part.<\/p>\n
Downing Centre Local Court heard 50 suspicious wagers were placed around the same time, causing an estimated loss of $167,387 to a betting operator.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Clayton Lewis, left, and Kearyn Baccus, right, were previously sentenced to a two-year conditional release order. (AAP: Dan Himbrechts)<\/p>\n
However, there was no evidence that D\u00e1vila was aware of the amounts wagered.<\/p>\n
He pleaded guilty to engaging in conduct that corrupts the betting outcome of an event and facilitating such conduct.<\/p>\n
During ongoing contact with J Col, the pair discussed further attempts to manipulate the betting market the following year, although they were ultimately abandoned.<\/p>\n
During some messages, the court heard J Col made reference to letting money “slip away” when plans were aborted.<\/p>\n
D\u00e1vila was arrested in May 2024.<\/p>\n
Motivated by fear, court told<\/p>\n
According to a report from a psychologist, D\u00e1vila said his sole intention was to keep his family safe in an environment where he felt threats were real.<\/p>\n
He said there had been increasingly coercive communication, including through intermediaries, and attempted to avoid involvement or delay further contact.<\/p>\n
The former skipper claimed he acted while under fear and pressure as he approached the other players.<\/p>\n
His defence team pointed to the complete absence of evidence that he received any financial benefit to back up the claims of duress.<\/p>\n
But Magistrate Marguerite Vassall on Wednesday accepted a prosecution submission that he had not, on balance, established that he was acting under duress.<\/p>\n
She said the offences were of moderate seriousness after weighing up factors including the estimated financial loss to the betting operator, and the fact that his ongoing contact with J Col spanned some time despite ultimately not impacting the outcomes of games.<\/p>\n
The magistrate made a finding that the offending “to some extent brings the integrity of the game into disrepute”.<\/p>\n
Career ‘effectively over’<\/p>\n
She took into account a significant amount of evidence about D\u00e1vila’s prior good character.<\/p>\n
“Mr D\u00e1vila is someone who has led, until the commission of these offences, a crime-free life,” she said.<\/p>\n
“It is more than that, he has engaged in philanthropic pursuits, he’s donated money, he has provided assistance to orphanages.<\/p>\n
“As I understand it he has, until the commission of these offences, been the type of player where his reputation is such that he was appointed captain of the Macarthur Football Club.”<\/p>\n
Magistrate Vassall said it was not in dispute that the offences occurred in a “very specific set of circumstances” and against a backdrop of grief.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
The court heard D\u00e1vila’s career was “effectively over”. (AAP: Jeremy Ng)<\/p>\n
She said it was also not disputed that the risk of him offending again was reduced because his career was “effectively over”.<\/p>\n
She recorded a conviction and imposed a fine of $7,700 for the initial offence, and a fine of $3,300 for the second offence of facilitation.<\/p>\n
“I think you understand this is something, anything of this kind, you must not engage in again,” Magistrate Vassall told D\u00e1vila before he left the courtroom.<\/p>\n
Last year, Lewis and Baccus were sentenced to a two-year conditional release order for their lesser roles in the saga.<\/p>\n
They received $10,000 from their captain for their involvement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Macarthur FC captain Ulises D\u00e1vila has avoided jail and has been fined $11,000 for his involvement in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":488028,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[246737,246741,64,63,615,246739,109149,21944,109150,109151,198757,85,161246,57712,246738,246740],"class_list":["post-488027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-a-league-betting","tag-a-league-card-fixing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-betting","tag-betting-scandal","tag-clayton-lewis","tag-gambling","tag-kearyn-baccus","tag-macarthur-fc","tag-nsw-court","tag-sports","tag-sydney-court","tag-sydney-fc","tag-ulises-davila","tag-yellow-card-scandal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/488028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}