Marylebone Cricket Club has dismissed its head of ticketing for “misappropriating complimentary tickets for personal gain and falsifying records”.
After the club’s AGM in May, Telegraph Sport reported that the club was investigating a misappropriation of funds that had emerged when pulling together the 2023 accounts.
Now in a missive to members, the outgoing chief executive Guy Lavender has confirmed that the matter has been resolved, with head of ticketing Simon Wakefield admitting he was responsible. He was immediately dismissed for gross misconduct.
Lavender wrote: “At the AGM in May, we informed Members that we had commenced an investigation into a misappropriation in the Club. The investigation is now finished and we are therefore able to update Members.
“In March 2024, the Executive identified anomalies in the ticket records for major matches. The Committee was made aware, and a full investigation was launched, supported by external solicitors, Peters & Peters Solicitors LLP. This revealed that Simon Wakefield, MCC’s Head of Ticketing, had been supplying misappropriated complimentary major match tickets for personal gain and falsifying ticketing records. Mr Wakefield admitted the allegations and was dismissed on grounds of gross misconduct. The investigation found no evidence of other employees being involved.
“The Committee’s primary objective thereafter has been to return the value of the misappropriated major match tickets to the Club. The Committee can assure Members that this objective has now been achieved – the value of the tickets has been secured by way of financial settlement, avoiding a protracted and costly process in the Courts and achieving recovery of funds.
“Our Auditors have been kept informed throughout. The misappropriation, which was not material in accounting terms, has had no impact on the Club’s Accounts.
MCC declined to comment when approached by Telegraph Sport for further comment.
The news comes at a time of great change for MCC. Lavender will leave in December to take over as CEO at Cheltenham racecourse, with a search under way to replace him. Mervyn King took over this month as president, with Mark Nicholas moving from that role to chairman.
This week, the club held a special general meeting over its involvement in the Hundred. It is to be gifted 51 per cent of Lord’s franchise London Spirit when stakes in the eight teams are sold this year. The result of the SGM – which is a simple question of “do we want to accept the gift or not?” – will be confirmed next week.
