Fans 'conned in autograph scam'

Graeme Walker and Faisal Madani deny the charges

Sports fans were conned into spending thousands of pounds on faked autographs of their heroes, a jury has been told.

Autographs of Jonny Wilkinson and David Beckham were "systematically" forged and sold by Graeme Walker and Faisal Madani, Chester Crown Court heard.

Mr Walker, 45, of Connah's Quay, North Wales, denies more than 50 counts of cheating customers at his shop, Chester's Sporting Icons Limited.

Mr Madani, 43, of Stockport, denies 20 counts of supplying the forgeries.

Other stars whose signatures were forged include Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher, Michael Owen and Sir Alex Ferguson, the court was told.

Some of them are expected to give evidence, or have statements read to the jury, next week.

The court heard signatures of David Beckham were systematically forged

Mr Walker, of Mountain View Close, and Mr Madani, of Grange Road, Stockport, Greater Manchester, are accused of trading the goods from Sporting Icons and also on the internet auction site eBay.

They claim the goods were bought in good faith and from reputable sources.

Andrew Thomas QC, prosecuting, opened the trial, saying: "Those charges are only a sample of the many hundreds of forged and counterfeit goods either sold or offered for sale by Sporting Icons.

"It would have been impossible to track down all the international stars and the representative bodies responsible for authenticating them."

He said some customers paid premium prices, hundreds or even thousands of pounds, in the belief they were buying genuine goods.

The jurors were told that Sporting Icons did not just sell sporting memorabilia, they also sold autographs and pictures of musical and Hollywood stars including the Beatles, Nat King Cole and Sylvester Stallone as Rocky Balboa.

'Betrayed trust'

Most of the fraud took place in 2005, Mr Thomas said.

He said: "The defendants were involved in selling effectively worthless items to the public.

"The defendants, we say, betrayed the trust of the public. In short, they were ripping fans off."

He told the jury that in 2002 Mr Madani had paid George Best compensation of £10,000 after he was caught selling fake autographs of the footballing legend.

He also told them how Beckham fans had seen adverts for autographed pictures of their idol and reported Sporting Icons to Trading Standards.

Mr Thomas said the allegations involved about 140 separate items, and was not a case of a few "rogue items slipping through the net".

He showed the court a get well soon card sent to Mr Walker from Mr Madani and supposedly signed by Manchester United's Cristiano Ronaldo.

He said Mr Madani had written a message in the card joking about Mr Walker's ability to find an "idiot" who would have paid £300 for the card.

The trial was adjourned until Friday.