Footballer is jailed for passing forged notes

soccer apprentices.

Thomas, 39, was told by Judge Gareth Edwards at Warrington Crown Court

that, as senior professional at Wrexham FC, he should have been setting

an example to the apprentices and warning them of the dangers and

temptations.

He told Thomas, a former midfielder with Manchester United and a

string of top clubs: ''Instead, largely I think because it fitted in

with your self-image as a flash and daring adventurer, you betrayed the

trust of your employers and you failed in your duty as a distinguished

international sportsman.''

Also jailed with Thomas was his friend, businessman Alexander Roache,

who the court had been told, handed over the forged #20 and #10 notes to

the young YTS players with Thomas acting as intermediary.

The footballer, of Mochdre, near Colwyn Bay, Clwyd, was convicted

earlier this month after a two-day trial at Knutsford Crown Court on

three offences of delivering counterfeit currency involving around #800

in forged notes.

Roache pleaded guilty to four similar offences at an earlier hearing.

Both had been remanded until yesterday for sentence. As he arrived at

court yesterday, Thomas still managed to laugh and joke with reporters,

asking them: ''Has anyone got change for #10 for the phone?''

Neither Thomas, nor Roache, 49, were involved in bringing the

forgeries into existence.

The Judge said: ''You, Michael Thomas, a senior professional at

Wrexham FC, a man admired by youngsters throughout Wales and much

further afield than that, a man who many times had the honour of wearing

the Welsh shirt -- you should above all have been setting young

apprentices an example in how a true professional conducts himself.''

Thomas's counsel, Mr David Williams, asking the Judge to keep the

sentence to a minimum, said prison would be a ''devastating experience''

for the footballer.

''The punishment to him is the disgrace and the fall from a great deal

of popularity and fame and having to go to prison,'' said Mr Williams.

''He is not a wicked man, he is a foolish man. His judgment is at its

best on the field of football, not in his private affairs. He has worked

since leaving school and has nothing to show for it, in effect, at the

age of 39.''

He said that, since Thomas's arrest 20 months ago, he had been the

victim of a ''cruel and brutal assault'', for which one of those

involved received a two-year prison sentence -- an incident which might

be seen as part of ''the decline and fall of a star''.

The incident -- when he was attacked while making love to his

ex-wife's sister-in-law in a car -- had brought ''public ridicule'' on

him.

Mr Williams said that Thomas was concerned about the effect news of

his sentence would have on his elderly mother, who has cancer, and his

children. His 13-year-old son, Aaron, had grown up with him for the past

eight years and they were devoted to each other.

The footballer was ''born too late'' and, despite being an outstanding

player, never earned the ''thousands a week'' of today's stars. He lived

with ''no grandeur'' in a council house and had suffered in the past

from being generous to a fault.

The forgeries came to light after the young players used them to pay

for drinks during a night out at a club in Buckley, Clwyd, the court

heard. The offences took place from 1991 to January last year.