{"id":32173,"date":"2025-09-20T04:53:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-20T04:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/32173\/"},"modified":"2025-09-20T04:53:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T04:53:10","slug":"louis-tomlinson-was-unsuspectedly-targeted-by-pension-fraud-crooks-in-failed-multi-million-doncaster-rover-takeover-bid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/32173\/","title":{"rendered":"Louis Tomlinson was ‘unsuspectedly targeted by pension fraud crooks’ in failed multi-million Doncaster Rover takeover bid"},"content":{"rendered":"

Louis Tomlinson<\/a> was reportedly duped by pension fraudsters who fleeced retirees out of millions of pounds after they launched a failed takeover bid of his boyhood football club.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The One Direction<\/a> star had hoped he could transform Doncaster Rovers into a football powerhouse and became the public face of the campaign to find the club a buyer in 2014.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He launched a crowdfunder aimed at raising \u00a36million of investment for the takeover from his millions of online fans.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, Louis was unaware that the primary investors – who had pledged a whopping \u00a3500,000 to the cause – were in fact a gang of criminals.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Details of the scam emerged last month after Kevin Phelan and his co-defendants\u00a0Daniel Giles and Adrian Bashforth were convicted of\u00a0siphoning cash from people’s retirement funds, The Mirror<\/a> has reported.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Their trial at Leeds Crown Court heard the group had hoped to use the Doncaster Rovers deal to cover their tracks\u00a0and explain away where all the money had gone.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Irish businessman Phelan first approached Doncaster Rovers’ former chairman John Ryan in 2013, saying they wanted to buy the club.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He implied that he already had an investor ready who was willing to provide millions of pounds.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Louis <\/p>\n

Louis Tomlinson was reportedly duped by pension fraudsters who fleeced retirees out of millions of pounds after they launched a failed takeover bid of his boyhood football club<\/p>\n

However, Phelan, 62, was in fact bankrupt and the only cash he had on the table\u00a0was \u00a3500,000 – which was provided by a member of his fraud gang.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The court was told that Louis then became involved with the group the following year, when he was at his peak of One Direction fame.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It came after two of Phelan’s attempts to buy the club collapsed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A new deal was subsequently agreed with Louis and Ryan acting as a public faces of a crowdfunding to raise the rest of the cash.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The fraudsters met Louis at his home in Cheshire and he also invited members of the gang to a concert in Dublin.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was there that a deal was signed that would hand\u00a0over 70 per cent of Doncaster to Belize-based Sequentia Capital SA if the takeover was successful.<\/p>\n

However, the trial heard that the firm was sourcing its funds from ‘stolen pension money’.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It is understood that some pensioners lost their life savings in the scam.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There is no suggestion that Louis, who was set to become co-chairman of the club, knew about the pension fraud.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Prosecutor Tim Hannam told the court:\u00a0‘He (Mr Phelan) was no doubt delighted to be part of a scheme which basically provided him with free money from people’s life savings funding his lifestyle, his wife’s debts and his mortgage for his big, lovely house with its long drive.’<\/p>\n

\"Pictured: <\/p>\n

Pictured: John Ryan – the former chairman of Doncaster Rovers\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to The Mirror’s report, Phelan, 62, went to Louis’s home in January 2014.\u00a0<\/p>\n

His co-defendant Giles then texted that day: ‘I’ve been interrogated for the last few hours over 1D boy. Kids want to come to the next meeting mate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘I’m thinking 16 million brainwashed followers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘Very very interesting. Let’s crack on now together and build a nice fighting fund.’<\/p>\n

The deal ultimately fell through as the crowdfunder raised just \u00a3600,000 and Phelan’s investment promises were empty.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the time, Louis claimed he was ‘misled’ over his efforts to step in to take over Doncaster Rovers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a series of posts online, Tomlinson wrote: ‘I’m absolutely gutted the Doncaster Rovers deal is not going ahead. I am desperate for the club to be given the recognition it deserves.<\/p>\n

‘I was explicitly told that the deal to buy the club was not dependent on the money raised by Crowdfunding. Unfortunately I was misled.<\/p>\n

‘My passion for Doncaster Rovers remains as strong as ever, and I hope that I can still be involved with the club moving forward.<\/p>\n

‘And to all the Doncaster Rovers fans , I will do all in my power to help the club succeed. I really do love the club.’<\/p>\n

Tomlinson added: ‘For the record, I insisted contractually I would never earn a penny from DRFC. I simply wanted to help club and community. Still hoping I can.’<\/p>\n

The fraudsters are due to be sentenced in January and are expected to receive ‘significant’ jail terms.<\/p>\n

Louis’s reps have been contacted for comment.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Louis Tomlinson was reportedly duped by pension fraudsters who fleeced retirees out of millions of pounds after they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32174,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[539,93,61,60,25683,43,25682],"class_list":{"0":"post-32173","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-dailymail","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-louis-tomlinson","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-one-direction"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}