Former JJB Sports CEO sentenced to four years

Chris Ronnie, the former chief executive of JJB Sports has been sentenced to four years in prison and banned from being named a company director after accepting over 1 million pounds in a “very greedy” fraud.

Ronnie was understood to be 11 million pounds in debt to Icelandic bank Kaupthing Singer Friedlander when he accepted bribes from three suppliers to the sportswear retailer. London's Southwark Crown Court heard how Ronnie used some of the money he received to purchase property in Florida, before lying to the bank about his assets and liabilities when it attempted to recover the money.

The former JJB CEO was found guilty last month, along with his business partners David Ball and David Barrington, who were each sentenced to 18 months in prison. All three will have to serve at least half their time.

The charges brought against the men are the result of a long-term investigation into JJB Sports by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), who were previously alerted to the internal cover up by a computer engineer who was asked by Ball and Barrington to erase personal emails which included details of their deals with the former CEO.

Ronnie first was given a payment of 650,000 pounds in February 2008 from Performance Brands, a sporting goods supplier that was associated with both Ball and Barrington. Then later in June that year, Ronnie was given 197,000 pounds from another supplier known as Fashion and Sport, who was also connected to the duo and at the end of the year, the former CEO was given a third payment of 134,000 from Fashion and Sport.

Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith, who sentenced Ronnie said that he had shown a “flagrant and disgraceful breach” of his duty as the firm's CEO. He added that Ronnie's role at JJB Sport “brought with it enormous responsibility to the employees and the shareholders” but “within months [he was] grossly abusing that position by embarking upon a course of conduct which was dishonest in the extreme.”

“Over a period of nine months they gave you just under 1 million pounds [and] you hid the fact they had paid you those sums because you wanted to keep your position as CEO and keep the money, and spend it as you did, mainly on the house.” The Judge also pointed out that Ronnie had not shown “any sign of remorse or even embarrassment” concerning the crimes he committed.

Ronnie oversaw the daily operation of the sportswear retailer between August 2007 and March 2009 before JJB Sports fell into administration in 2012.