A footballer today apologised after spending £12,000 of his fiancée’s money on a gambling addiction likened to crack cocaine.
Kris Newby, 25, said he found himself getting further into debt on slot machines allowing £100-a-go bets and took money from Lacey Maclean, 23, in a bid to cover and recoup the losses.
The semi-professional winger with Ryman League side East Thurrock United had proposed to her at a black-tie dinner in January but the couple have now split up and on Sunday she tweeted claims that he stole her money and jewellery to feed his addiction.
Today he said he was getting treatment for his addiction and said sorry for what he had done. “I’ve hurt a lot of people as a result but most of all Lacey and I’d like to apologise publicly to her and her family and anyone else I’ve hurt,” he went on.
Mr Newby said his main addiction was to virtual roulette on casino-style, fixed-odds betting terminals — called the “crack cocaine” of gambling.
He added: “I’ve never been addicted to drugs but this is worse than them. In three seconds you have lost £100. This ruins lives.”
He said he had been to see his doctor about the problem this week and has now been referred to a gambling clinic in north London. “It started with small, infrequent amounts of money then, the longer it went on, the more I got into it using larger amounts,” he said.
“I’d lose, so then I’d think, ‘I’d better play again to win back the money’, and it went from there. I dug myself into a deeper and deeper hole.”
The couple, who lived in Tilbury and met in May, planned to marry next year but have now parted. Mr Newby earned £1,400 a month as a Tilbury docks rigger but soon burned through his wages and began skipping work to gamble.
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His daily habit meant he transferred about £8,000 of her money, plus £4,000 from the joint account for household bills, into his account and lost it all in less than four months.
He switched from high street betting shops to online gambling so he could do it from home. Mr Newby said: “Lacey kept saying, ‘This can’t be right, our money can’t have all gone’, but I’d just say, ‘Well, it has’. I’d be sitting at work, not concentrating, thinking, ‘Will Lacey find out? Will I go home and still have a girlfriend?’”
Ms Maclean, who works at a shipping firm, uncovered the loss by noting the transfers on her bank statement.
In a string of angry tweets, she wrote: “Kris Newby is a liar, thief and gambler. He has taken over £12,000 of my money and jewellery — be aware.
“The man I was going to marry has robbed me. He has gambled it all. The reason I’ve put it on here is so everyone knows who he really is. He is nothing but scum.”
The couple have both deleted their Twitter accounts and Ms Maclean is refusing to comment.
