Aussie manager and trainer Keith Ellis received a suspended jail sentence yesterday for diverting $100,000 into his ailing hotel business by claiming robberies at his pub.
One of his fighters, Mick O'Malley, even stabbed himself with a syringe and vomited to make an armed robbery claim appear real (O'Malley won the vacant Commonwealth super-featherweight title in Coventry in 1999 with an impressive first-round stoppage of Richard Evatt but lost it in his first defence to Scot Ian McLeod in Glasgow; he was also stopped by Alex Moon in this country).
Both Ellis and O'Malley pleaded guilty in Melbourne to all deception charges. They received a suspended six-month jail sentence and were ordered to repay more than $99,000 between them (O'Malley co-owns the hotel).
Detective-Constable Tony Juric told the court the pair did not take the money for their own personal gain but put it back into the business which was losing thousands.
"He (O'Malley) must have been in a pretty desperate state to stab himself with a syringe," the officer said. "When we arrived at the hotel to arrest the pair, Mr Ellis looked like he knew why we were there, and he looked relieved."
The 46-year-old Ellis is the elder brother of Aussie boxing great Lester. Sadly, it was revealed in court Lester is suffering depression and alcoholism.
Ellis and O'Malley lose the plot...
-
Manos de Oro
- Heavyweight
- Posts: 1630
- Joined: 21 Sep 2004, 12:10
Maybe should make a new topic about this, but your mention of Ian McCleod got me thinking, bennie. A few months ago I was looking through the boxrec schedule and noticed a bout in Canada, wasn't for a title or anything, and I don't think there were many other fights on the card. But the bizarre thing was, one of them was from Kilmarnock (same as McCleod). I made a note of the name to see what the result was... but forgot it. Anyone have any idea?