Football club owner accused of taking more than £28,000 from players’ parents

Parents have accused the owner of the girls’ football club Red Star Lionesses of taking more than £28,000 in payments for tournaments that did not happen, kits that did not arrive and sessions with Women’s Super League players that did not take place.

James (also known as Jamie or Jay) Austin, who has two fraud convictions, one of which resulted in a two-year jail term, faces allegations made by more than 70 parents involved with the grassroots club. The claims are being reviewed by Greater Manchester police and are part of an investigation by the Football Association, which has issued Austin with an interim suspension while that investigation continues.

He denies all the claims made against him and says they are a civil matter between the club and the parents.

Austin is also accused of having charged parents a total of about £8,500 for entry, travel and accommodation to the Paris International Cup, a tournament being hosted at Paris Saint-Germain’s training ground in July.

The Guardian has seen messages Austin sent to parents offering the opportunity for their girls to compete at the tournament and detailing the travel and accommodation packages that the tournament organiser, ProPlay Sports Tours, had available. But emails from the tournament organisers, also seen by the Guardian, state that Austin had made a reservation for two teams on an entry-only package and he did not book the accommodation and travel packages for which he charged parents.

Organisers said the teams’ entry was cancelled after they did not receive payment and alleged that Austin had doctored an email from them before sharing it with parents.

Parents have launched a GoFundMe to help cover the cost of sending a team to the tournament, which organisers are holding space for, saying requests for refunds from Austin have not been met.

“My daughter is deeply upset and heartbroken that the trip she had been promised to the Paris International Cup may never happen,” one parent said. “She placed her trust, excitement, and dreams in something that now feels like a cruel deception. The emotional damage caused by this situation goes far beyond the financial loss.”

Another parent said: “Jamie ‘Jay’ Austin is the cowardly culprit, but every organisation involved in this case has enabled the wider failure across the girls football pathway. What will it take for the game to change and finally meet the standards already in place within boys’ football? For me, the immediate priority must be getting those girls to their tournament in Paris. Beyond that, the focus has to be on delivering the long-term changes needed to fix what is clearly a broken system.”

Greater Manchester police is understood to have received reports of Austin’s alleged activities and to be assessing the information.

It is also understood that Austin has been given an interim suspension order by the FA, which means he is unable to participate in regulated football activity while the FA’s investigation is under way, and that he has been charged by the FA with breaching Rule E3.1 by bringing the game into disrepute. The FA declined to comment on the suspensions and charges while its investigation is continuing.

Red Star Lionesses players.

The Guardian also understands that RS Lionesses have been suspended owing to non-compliance with FA regulations, in relation to not having a welfare officer after the officer resigned. Austin said the individual resigned for personal reasons.

An FA spokesperson said: “We take all allegations of potential misconduct very seriously and we will always take steps to report cases to the relevant authorities, including the police, where appropriate. We will also take steps, under our jurisdiction, to investigate possible breaches of our disciplinary rules, including when a team plays matches whilst under suspension. We are not in a position to comment on individual cases if they remain active.”

Parents were attracted to RS Lionesses, who are registered with the Lancashire FA but play matches across England, because of their lively social media presence, the opportunities the club appeared to present for girls to play in high-level games, and the number of girls who were also part of the emerging talent centres of clubs such as Arsenal, Chelsea, Crystal Palace, Brighton and Charlton.

Parents say many opportunities did not materialise, even though they were charged for them. For example, Austin is alleged to have advertised and charged £275 per player for a tournament later this month at Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium. The Guardian has seen a message from City to parents that no event is or was scheduled at the ground on that day. The Guardian has also seen a message from Arsenal confirming a tournament he charged for at the Emirates Stadium was never scheduled.

He also allegedly charged £20 per player for entry to a tournament last month organised by the Celtic FC Foundation at a community centre in London which parents subsequently found out was free to enter.

One parent, who said they had paid more than £1,400 to Austin, said they felt “betrayed” and that the “impact this has had on both me and my daughter has been devastating”. They said: “Looking back, I can now see how my trust was exploited. As a parent, the most horrifying part is knowing that I allowed someone capable of this behaviour to be close to my daughter.”

Another parent said: “Jamie Austin promised my daughter two tournaments and three matches, all of which were paid for. However, none of these were ever booked with the organisers.

They said their daughter had been affected “mentally due to being repeatedly let down” and that “no refunds were provided when requested”.

They added: “Jamie also repeatedly pressured me into purchasing a football kit costing over £120. I declined because I could not afford it, and I had already heard from others who had waited over a year for their kits and still had not received them.”

Austin said parents had agreed on registration to purchase kits, which were “custom and non-refundable as per Nike Football’s refund policy”, that he “always made sure the players waiting for kits had spare football shirts” and that no one was charged for socks because they were sponsored by a WSL player.

Austin said this week that as a “gesture of goodwill over £6,000 has been refunded in the past five days”. However, of the more than 70 parents who have come forward, none have received a direct refund from Austin in that time. Some have successfully made claims through their banks.

In a voice WhatsApp note to parents, Austin said: “For about the last seven or eight months, I’ve been struggling with the football financially, with my business financially, everything at home … I’ve messed up.”

Parents have also accused Austin of advertising and charging for meet-and-greet sessions with WSL players, without the players’ knowledge or permission, which he later said were cancelled but that he would not issue refunds.

Austin is accused of not having paid in full the former Liverpool player Yana Daniels for running a training event. Daniels said: “After the event, Jay advised that he would pay the remaining balance later. On the day, I received £140 in cash, and it was agreed that I would be paid £20 per player attending. A total of 28 players attended the event, which came to £560 in total. As I only received £140, there is still an outstanding balance of £420 owed to me.

“I contacted Jay numerous times through messages regarding the unpaid balance, but I was repeatedly given excuses, such as additional event costs and claims that all the money had been put back into the event. Eventually, I stopped pursuing it as I became frustrated with the situation. More stories then came to light from other girls who had not received payment either. Because of this, we began warning others not to work events with him in the future.”

Daniels also accused Austin of readvertising the event with her this year without her knowledge and permission.

Austin was convicted in 2008 for using the identities of his grandparents to commit a fraud of tens of thousand of pounds. He was jailed for two years in 2012 for using fake notes at Royal Ascot. He was also accused of scamming the Jamie Vardy lookalike Lee Chapman and of using Katie Price’s son, Harvey, for financial gain without her knowledge.

Austin said he had “rebuilt my life” and “for the past 15 years I have led a law-abiding life”.