Supporters Club EGM

The worst kept secret in Kingston was finally made public this evening when an Extraordinary General Meeting of the Kingstonian FC Supporters' Club was held at Kingsmeadow. Colin Deadman, committee chairman, was in charge of the meeting which saw some 70 members turn out. The first points made were by the chairman, who basically went through what has occurred in the last few months, since he took over (July 1999).

THE FACTS

On August 28th of this year, treasurer Mike Powell declared at a committee meeting that there was £4,478.09p in the account, while there was in fact just £48.62p. On September 30th, £4,159.47p was declared, which compared to the actual balance of just £2.72p. A solicitor's letter was sent to Mr. Powell which asked him to turn up to a committee meeting on October 26th. At this meeting, a balance sheet dated October 10th was shown, which declared a balance of £3,946.97p against a real balance of £178.72p. Two cheques were then paid in, on the treasurer's behalf by other people, to cover this amount, so that various invoices could be paid.

The Supporters' Club now has a current balance of £3,515.00p with no outstanding liabilities.

THE DISCUSSION

Basically, it seems clear that Mr. Powell (who is now under investigation by the CID) had been borrowing money from the SC accounts, doing all he could to stop other committee members from seeing the accounts, and simply replacing monies for short periods of time so that he could declare balances and show statements.

The treasurer was dismissed, the point then being made, by Colin Deadman, that the new committee must be "beyond reproach" and that its' duty must be "to report any irregularities to members". This had already led to six members of the SC voluntarily standing down - Mark Murphy, Brian Newman, Brian Giffard, Tim Wells, Paul Ferrie and Dick Smith. One job for the EGM was to fill these positions.

Brian Newman and Mark Murphy said that they thought that the original SC bank account (set up in 1992) required 2 out of 3 listed signatories - the 3 being Mike Powell, Mark Murphy and Mark Osborne. Brian Newman admitted that he "had been neglectful" but, even though he had planned to leave at the end of this year, he didn't want to resign under these circumstances. He claimed that the accounts, as had been presented at monthly meetings and at AGMs, were correct, and he had simply been misled by Mr. Powell.

The point was raised from the floor that, if people thought that 2 signatures were needed, why didn't 2 of the 3 people realise that they were never asked to sign anything. Mark Murphy stated that he simply didn't realise, and that he admitted that that was negligent on his part.

Len Pocock - newly elected to the SC this year, said that he and Colin Deadman had realised "within 2 weeks" that something was up, and so the others must have known after 7 years. He has struck a deal with Safeguard (the coach company) that he would pay for travel up front, which was the ultimate downfall of Mr. Powell, as he was unable to provide Len with enough capital for this.

After the trip to Scarboro (September 4th) Colin Deadman went to the Halifax - where the account was based - to investigate. Although he was not given much information, he was twice told by the assistant manager to "go to the police". He did so.

Gary Spickett - the chairman during the "Powell years" - said that it "never dawned on me to ask who was signing the cheques". As long as the coach was paid for he was satisfied. But it wasn't always, and this was the reason that he resigned in July of this year.

Brian Giffard wanted somebody to clear his name. Mark Murphy obliged by saying that the chairman (Gary Spickett) spoke to Mike Powell and said that the accounts were incorrect. The inference was that they were out by "a couple of hundred pounds". He (Spickett) asked for the money to be returned by December 1998 which would then allow the matter to stay within the committee and not be made public.

There was then much discussion from the floor. Some people felt that all committee members were tarred with the same brush and that none of them should return. Others felt that they hadn't really done anything wrong - apart from being stupid or naive - and that it would be wrong to punish them for the actions of Mr. Powell.

Dick Smith then stood to declare that he is a claims investigator, and that he deals with problems like this every day of his working life. And he still had no idea what was occurring. "Mike Powell hoodwinked all of us, including me" he said.

Tim Wells never knew anything about the situation until a meeting last month. He was amazed to hear, because he had always simply given the money (amounting to over £30,000 in the time period) to Mike Powell. No receipts had ever changed hands, but Tim claimed that this was because the chairman (Gary Spickett) had never asked for them, which was admitted.

Lawrence Cooley, amongst others, said that a distinction had to be made between those committee members who were listed signatories and those who were not. He didn't want Tim Wells to go because he was "great".

The question was asked why 2 sets of statements were not produced during the time. Colin Deadman said that he had done just that and that it "was easy" - both Mark Murphy and Mark Osborne could have simply walked in to Halifax and requested statements. Brian Newman said that he had asked Mr. Powell for these, but had been told that the building society did not produce two sets.

THE RE-ELECTION

Mark Murphy said that all criticism of himself had been fair and that he would not be standing for re-election.

Brian Newman stood down too, although seemed less happy to do so.

Dick Smith also stood down.

The others stood for re-election - Tim Wells, Brian Giffard and Paul Ferrie.

All six left the room whilst the vote - and more discussion - took place.

THE VOTE

A block vote was taken to re-elect those members standing for re-election. The vote was passed with just two people voting against the decision.

A new treasurer and secretary were required. John Fenwick was proposed and seconded for treasurer, whilst Simon Murray was unanimously elected the new secretary.

Len Pocock who had resigned on a matter of principle was coerced to return, as his resignation had never been accepted.

Gavin Hall (aka Monty) then resigned from the committee, as he said that either the whole committee had to go, or none of them. His position will not be filled at this time.

THE CURRENT SITUATION

The acting treasurer is Peter Borrett (a "life long K's fan" who "couldn't make the Trophy final" and who was absent tonight), the current signatories of the new account (out of the reach of Mr. Powell) are Colin Deadman and Brian Newman.

The new treasurer (from January 2000) will be John Fenwick.

The new secretary is Simon Murray, with immediate effect.

Please note: We take no responsibility for the above information - it has been delivered in good faith and is as true a reflection of events as we can produce. It does not in any way represent the views of any individual, in particular the authors of this web site.