Our former managing director David Haigh, former managing director of Leeds United, has been jailed for two years in Dubai, but he intends to appeal.
37 year-old Haigh was convicted of ‘breach of trust’ in the Dubai Criminal Court on Tuesday, after being found guilty of misappropriating approximately $5m from GFH Capital, "by creating or procuring the creation of false invoices and procuring payment of those false invoices from funds belonging to the claimant”.
Reports on the case have not made it clear if this related to Leeds United’s money, or other funds belonging to our dearly beloved former owners. GFH claimed that the company discovered irregularities when it conducted its annual internal audit, but Haigh has consistently denied the allegations, claiming he was ‘set up’.
And nor is it clear if the sentence will include the 15 months Haigh has already spent behind bars in Dubai awaiting trial. He was originally detained in May last year after being lured to the Gulf state by GFH on the premise of discussing a new job offer.
But it certainly doesn’t look like Haigh has had a fair trial, and his legal team withdrew their assistance once his funds in Dubai were frozen and he wasn’t able to pay them. His sister Ali Thomas told newspaper ‘The Cornishman’ this afternoon "I gather that he wasn't allowed into the trial, he wasn't allowed to call any witnesses and he wasn't even allowed to submit any written evidence.”
The Foreign Office have confirmed that they are "providing consular assistance” to Haigh, but have not publicly give any further details of what they are doing on his behalf.
I’ll with Haigh good luck with his appeal, as he does at least deserve a fair and open legal process, but with the way things operate in that part of the world there is no guarantee that he’ll ever get one.