Former Halifax Town footballer jailed for fraud after hosting event and not paying businesses

Stephen Oleksewycz, 39, appeared at Leeds Crown Court where he was ordered to pay compensation within three months to the two creditors he defrauded.

Oleksewycz started in the events-promotion industry after his retirement as a footballer due to injury. He established his company, An Exp With Ltd, in 2016 with himself as sole director. But he was made bankrupt due to an outstanding debt of over £16,000.

Individuals who have gone bankrupt are subject to certain restrictions – in particular it is a criminal offence for a bankrupt to act as a company director or to manage or promote a company without permission obtained at court.

Oleksewycz did not have permission but continued to act as a director of An Exp With Ltd, which he used to deliver An Experience With... event in February 2017 involving Conor McGregor, the mixed martial-arts fighter.

The fraud offences related to this event, where Oleksewycz sent fake documents to the venue company, EventCity, and the company streaming the event, Groovy Gecko.

When both companies contacted Oleksewycz to advise they had not received their fees, Oleksewycz sent them doctored bank documents purporting to show the payments had been made, as a stalling tactic. This succeeded and both companies felt they had to proceed in the hope the lack of payments were due a mistake and would be addressed, or risk the event collapsing.

Groovy Gecko did not receive any payment and was owed over £15,000. EventCity was paid £5,000 of the outstanding total, which was nearly £80,000. Both companies were informed that An Exp With Ltd had gone into liquidation.

Glenn Wicks, Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service, said: “Acting as a company director while being an undischarged bankrupt is a serious offence, and to compound this Stephen Oleksewycz deliberately defrauded two businesses who gave him the benefit of the doubt to run an event despite their concerns about his behaviour.”