Hockey Fraud Article interesting read

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Some people will go to great lenths to fraud the hockey family:

Ex-owner of Junior A team arrested, faces fraud charges

Police allege Randy Gumbley collected $100,000 in fees and tuition for phony league, hockey school

May 01, 2008 04:30 AM
Emma Reilly
Staff Reporter

A well-known figure in Ontario hockey has been charged with fraud after allegedly launching a fake hockey league and recruiting players to a school that didn't exist.

Police say 41-year-old Randy Gumbley, former owner of the Streetsville Derbys, recruited students from the United States and Australia to play for a phony league called the Canadian Junior Elite Hockey League. Gumbley allegedly told the recruits that while playing for the league they would attend the Walton Gates Academy, an elite – but fictitious – private hockey school.

According to police, Gumbley created fake websites for the program in March 2007 and has been recruiting players since. He is believed to have collected $100,000 in tuition and student fees.

Thomas Gregoire, a sales representative from Havertown, Penn., was the first to go to police.

His 18-year-old son Andrew met Gumbley at the Chicago Showcase tournament in March 2007. Gumbley gave Andrew a Canadian Junior Elite Hockey League business card and told him he should come to Canada. Andrew was excited about the possibility of playing hockey "in an area where hockey lives," Gregoire said.

The pair visited Gumbley in Mississauga that summer for a tour of the league's facilities. Gumbley took them to Powerade Centre in Brantford and Hershey Centre in Mississauga, saying the league's home games would be there.

"He walked in like he owned the place," Gregoire said.

Gregoire said Gumbley took them to Sheridan College, claiming the Walton Gates Academy classes would be held there, and told them townhouses in the area would be the players' accommodations.

"He went to the nth degree ... It seemed legitimate and he went to great lengths to make it seem so."

But when Gregoire arrived in Brampton in August 2007 with a carload full of his son's belongings, Gumbley was nowhere to be found.

Peel Region police arrested Gumbley on Sunday.

The Streetsville Derbys are a Tier II, Junior A team in Streetsville.