Andy Pilley, the former Fleetwood Town owner jailed for 13 years, has failed in a bid to have his conviction overturned.
The 55-year-old businessman was sentenced in 2023 over a multi-million-pound fraud, which a court ruled ‘duped’ firms into expensive energy contracts.
Pilley was forced to step away from the League Two club following what was described as the biggest ever prosecution by National Trading Standards.
According to Daily Mail Sport, Piley has appeared at the High Court in London for the past two days in what was an ultimately unsuccessful appeal against his conviction.
Pilley is said to have watched proceedings via video link from prison. Had the appeal succeeded, a retrial may have been ordered, but he will now continue with his sentence.
After deliberating for around 10 minutes, Lord Justice Edis, sitting with two fellow judges, dismissed the appeal, ruling that the conviction must stand. Representing Pilley, Adrian Darbyshire KC said that a diagnosis of ADHD was obtained when he was in prison.
He argued that failure to make allowances for the condition during the trial meant that the conviction was ‘unfair’ and that his client had made a poor impression on both judge and jury at Preston Crown Court.
Listing symptoms of the disorder, Mr Darbyshire added: ‘Inattention, poor time management, finding it hard to follow lengthy or complex material, reduced executive functions, hyperactivity, internal restlessness, feeling on edge, struggling to sit still, becoming more unsettled when forced to remain quiet. Those symptoms are capable of having an obvious impact on someone’s preparation as a defendant. They are key symptoms likely to come into play in a negative way as a result of the experience of being put on trial.’
Mr. Darbyshire said that had Pilley’s ADHD been known, the process of his trial would have ‘changed from start to finish’.
He referred to a statement from one of the jurors, who had said the way Pilley had spoken to the judge ‘was appalling’.
‘It’s obvious that the applicant performed very badly in ways it is clear are completely consistent with ADHD symptoms,’ he added. ‘Can a conviction from such a trial properly be regarded as safe? In my submission it is clear that if Mr Pilley’s disability had been recognised or understood…the judge, prosecution, counsel and jury would have had a very different context in which to receive the evidence and conduct the trial.’
Mr. Darbyshire added: ‘The trial process is designed as much for a defendant as any other witness to achieve their best evidence and that clearly didn’t happen. It’s absolutely clear that some of the form of questioning, would never have been as it were had the diagnosis been known at the time. It is therefore the applicant’s submission that the conviction is unsafe because of the disadvantage he experienced through the trial.’
Professor Susan Young, a leading expert in ADHD, gave evidence and disclosed that Pilley’s assessment had taken place after a close family member had been diagnosed. She said Pilley had displayed ADHD symptoms as a child when he had often played truant and left school with a single ‘O’ Level.
Andrew Thomas KC, who prosecuted Pilley in the original trial, pointed out that despite those symptoms Pilley had taken an administrative role in the Post Office after leaving school, which saw him jailed for theft. He then added that upon leaving prison, he had ‘thrived’ as a salesman and ended up with 15 businesses employing 1,000 people.
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