Former footballer Lucien Aubey, who played on loan for Portsmouth in 2008, has been sentenced to two years in jail after being found guilty of fraud.
Aubey and co-defendant Mohamed Dia were investigated in France and ultimately convicted of soliciting a £120,000 investment from a friend to help set up a record label.
The friend reported the fraud and the 40-year-old former Premier League player was subsequently charged along with Dia, who was handed a one-year suspended jail sentence.
Ex-Pompey loanee guilty of fraud
“The Toulouse court heard that Aubey and co-accused Mohamed Dia allegedly told the man, known simply as Sebastien, that he would earn £1million three years after his investment,” reports Alan Smith for the Mirror.
“Prosecutors revealed conversations on a tapped phone that proved the accusation with the court ordering Aubey sentenced to a two-year prison term, with the final 12 months suspended.”
"I lost everything, and my wife wanted to commit suicide. I had to give up work. We split up, and those two [Aubey and Dia] just had a good laugh about it all," Sebastien, a shoe repairer now aged 42, told the court.
The court also heard from Aubey in his defence: “My money was tied up in Cyprus, held by my club Olympiakos Nicosia. This wasn't a fraud – I never robbed anyone.”
Aubey, who is also barred setting up a company due to a previous bankruptcy according to Smith, must also reimburse his former friend in full.
According to the Portsmouth News, Aubey and Dia relieved Sebastien of his money in 2015. Aubey was also accused of “threatening to harm [Sebastien’s] children” when his former friend pursued repayment.
The Congolese left-back played the bulk of his professional career with Toulouse before moving to Lens in 2007.
Aubey was loaned to Portsmouth the following year and made three Premier League appearances, later playing for Rennes, Turkish side Sivasspor and Reims before the ill-fated move to Cyprus in 2012.
“Aubey arrived at Pompey at the start of 2008, in the same transfer window in which Lassana Diarra was signed by Harry Redknapp from Arsenal,” says the Portsmouth News.
“Jermain Defoe was also recruited from Spurs at the window’s close, as Benjani moved to Manchester City.”
Born in Brazzaville, Congo, Aubey represented France at Under-21 level but won five senior international caps for the Republic of the Congo in the last few years of his career.
