Brother of Gary Lineker jailed for tax fraud

Wayne Lineker, the brother of former England striker Gary, was jailed for two and a half years for a £220,000 tax fraud linked to a chain of Mediterranean sports bars bearing the family name.

Wayne, had admitted one count of fraud at Southwark Crown Court.

During the trial, the court heard how Lineker had smuggled foreign currency from the bars into the UK in suitcases, converting it into sterling through a friend and not declaring it to tax authorities.

The deal was thought to have cost HM Revenue up to £90,000. John Stacey, the friend, worked at NatWest stockbrokers and was convicted earlier this year.

Mr Lineker was also ordered to pay a £90,000 confiscation order or face a further 2years in jail, owns 8 pubs and has franchises on 3 others in countries across Europe including Spain and Portugal.

Gary Lineker 45, won eighty caps for England and was top scorer at the 1986 World Cup finals. He played nearly three hundred games for Leicester before moving to Everton. He also played for Barcelona, Tottenham Hotspur and Grampus Eight in Japan. Since his retirement, he has fronted BBC coverage of soccer in England.

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