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[Darren]

DRIVER CLAIMS REDS OWE HIM 'THOUSANDS'
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EXCLUSIVE BYSAM MUNNERY
SAM.MUNNERY@ESSNMEDIA.CO.UK

09:00 - 26 March 2008



A furious coach driver claims to have been "cheated" out of thousands of pounds by Crawley Town Football Club.

Darren Meekings, the owner of D & K Coaches, says he is owed a whopping £13,000 by the club for the transport service with which he has provided them this season.

The father-of-three set up his coach hire company last year but now says that Crawley owe it so much money that it has almost ruined his business.



His claims come a week after it was revealed that the club face being wound up if they do not pay tax debts to HM Revenue and Customs.

Despite the sum of money that Meekings believes he is due, he claimed that Crawley Town had cut its ties with his company after a disagreement ahead of a midweek game at Altrincham.

The players had to drive up to the evening match because the club did not pay a part of the debt upfront, Meekings claims.

In the Altrincham match report on Crawley's website the club cited "late travel problems" as the reason.

But an incensed Meekings has decided to speak out so fans know his version of the story.

"They have not paid me and I was very close to losing the business over it," he said.

"There was no problem with the coach. I asked them for a minimum of £3,000 of the £13,000 they owe me and they came up with £1,200.

"I feel cheated. I knew what they were playing at. But we couldn't even afford to go shopping the other day and the owners of Crawley are driving round in £100,000 cars."

Meekings set up his Seaford-based business last year after previously working as a driver for Hallmark Coaches in Charlwood.

He is a regular driver for local sports teams, having driven Lewes, Eastbourne Borough and Grays football clubs and the Sussex County Cricket team, as well as taking Horsham to their FA Cup replay at Swansea this season.

Meekings, who has three "football-mad" young sons, was booked to take the Crawley squad up to Cheshire to face Altrincham two weeks ago, part of an £18,000 season-long contract to cater for the Reds' travel to away league matches.

According to the coach driver, that price included a £9,000 discount and D & K arranged with the club for the money to be paid in £2,000 instalments over nine months.

But Meekings claims he has not received payments for the last five months making him £13,000 out of pocket, and matters came to a head on March 11 when he went to collect the Crawley team from the Broadfield Stadium for the long trip north.

He says he forewarned the club via e-mail several times that he expected £3,000 of the debt to be paid to him before he drove the team to Altrincham.

But when he arrived at the ground he says he was handed just £1,200 in cash and told that the club had no other money to give him at the time.

"I don't want to be doing this but at some point you have to draw the line," said Meekings.

"I e-mailed them on Friday and said I wanted the money. I thought: 'I'm being given the runaround here'.

"I sent another e-mail on Monday and said unless a payment of £3,000 is received before the match I wouldn't be able to take them. They knew the score but obviously thought I would be a soft touch.

"They were due to depart at 1pm so I got there at 11.30am and they gave me £1,200 in cash. I asked where the rest of it was and they said: 'We can't get it, we have not got any more money'.

"The thing is I've got a young family and I'm really struggling now. But like everyone else I have been cheated by Crawley Town."

Meekings added he felt "gutted" at leaving the players stranded and even offered them a lift to the railway station, but said he had finally had enough of not being paid.

"I felt upset and uptight that I had let them down but up until now I have had a good relationship with [the club]. But it's not my problem," he said.

Crawley Town were given a chance to respond to the figures quoted by Mr Meekings. A spokesman for the Reds said the club would not comment, adding: "We do not discuss our business affairs through the media."   Reader comments 
Mechanical fault? The entire mechanism of the club seems to be faulty. Roll on the new owners -a) if they actually exist, b) If they are not the same crew who bankrupted Boston United.
Ian, Hassocks




Didn't our embarassment of a team manager, who has nothing to do with anything financial within the club, publicly state that it was due to a mechancial fault? I'm sure this pillar of the community with his unblemished record of being a model citizen, would not lie to us, would he?
Ian, Crawley

[JT]

That is appaling
Shame on you Crawley Town
surely they are going bust at the end of the season?

[Dougals Dad]

There was rumour of a buy-out.

For the sake of integrity in football at this level they should be wound up.

[JT]

I think Tax-invader Sinawatra has better books than them lot down there

[Butty]

Abseloute disgrace, kick them out of the league with immediate effect. Another non payment to people who are giving their service to Crawley Town.

[Longman]

What a horrible horrible set up that 'club' has.

Disgraceful, 

[Jezza]

I feel cheated. I knew what they were playing at. But we couldn't even afford to go shopping the other day and the owners of Crawley are driving round in £100,000 cars."

This is the real insult. These people are a disgrace....wind em up I say.

[Leon]

And there must be dozens of similar stories relating to the creditors of Halifax Town and the many clubs who've gone into admin in recent seasons. The footballing authorities should be ashamed that the game is treating decent, small companies such as these with such total disregard.

Administration should equal relegation.

[gazwarrington]

Surely its obvious to the FA that this is an "Easy way out" for club ... More and more clubs are doing it and its embarassing and unfair...

The amount of clubs going into Admin is a DISGRACE. 20point deduction for the season you go into it and then start on minus 20 the following season and NOT be allowed to pay money for ANY player for 2 seasons. If thats seems unfair then its simple .. RUN YOR CLUB PROPERLY !

[Narcissist]

The FA are pathetic.

I feel that this will just go on and on. Crawley should have been stopped from doing this kind of thing years ago and instead the FA has allowed them to continue ruining local businesses and darkening the local economy. Its now the time that the FA realised that they need to regulate clubs more strictly.

This league has been turned from something exciting and magical with lots of great grass roots football tales and proud history into an absolute disgrace. Ive never heard of a sporting community that is dominated by 'off-field' matters as much as this end of the non-league pyramid.

The FA must act now or lose the true meaning of the conference forever.

[markecky]

For me the AGM can go two ways...

The Committee can say

A)  Look we can't be seen to be kicking people out every year..we must save face

B) Lets be seen as the league that does not tolerate this kind of stuff...set an example and keep it clean

[Ballers]

To be fair to the conference I think that they have gone for option B more often than not.

The 10 points rule was intended to have the effect that it would basically relegate mid table clubs and not promote top 6 sides. In reality, 10 points is not a hell of a lot.

I'm not sure what should be done about Crawley, I think it should be anything which gets the Majeeds and Lavaflow out of there. We're always the first to jump on their backs but they are more sick of it than we are! Notwithstanding the fact that at all clubs there are some so blind that they cannot see.

I think they should have been deducted evry point they gained whilst makig illegal cash payments to players. However, they've had 6 points deducted for that and as astonished as the conference board were at Moules actions on that one they can't punish them again.

I just hope we stay up on merit co that these points can be made again at the end of the season without it sounding like we're just trying to save our skins.

p.s. I also have no doubt whatsover that Crawley with their 47 points will go into admin before the seasons out.

[DarrenH]

Thats exactly right.
This new buyer they have been going on about will not be announced until they are mathematically safe and they will then take the ten point deduction leaving them free to play in the premier next season.

[crossie]

Bastar*s
Crawley for a few seasons now have had a catalogue of financial issues. Every season its the same old story, they take there 10 point deduction. I wonder if another team had caused as much trouble as crawley with their finances, they would have been alout to stay in the BSP.
I think not.