Former Wallabies captain Rocky Elsom has been sentenced to 2 years gaol time by a French court docket, and can be set to pay a $109,000 high-quality for misusing company property throughout his time as membership president of Narbonne.
The 75-capped Wallaby didn’t attend the proceedings, and a manhunt is reportedly underway to find him, based on CODE, with French authorities issuing an arrest warrant for the 42-year-old.
After representing the Wallabies from 2005-2011, Elsom transitioned into sports activities administration, serving as president of Narbonne from 2015-16.
In October final yr, studies surfaced that Elsom fled Eire following a world arrest warrant being issued for embezzling funds, which got here with a 5 yr jail sentence. Elsom defended himself in an unique interview with The Roar, together with his lawyer interesting the choice.
Rocky Elsom. (Picture by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Photographs)
On the time, the embezzling membership funds have been reportedly claimed by making unjustified expenditures to pay a coach or a common supervisor who was residing in Australia.
Elsom was finally acquitted on costs of forgery and use of forgery however was made to pay €230,000 in compensation to the membership’s liquidator.
Nevertheless, claims of misusing company property nonetheless hung over the flanker, which culminated in a trial final month and reportedly carried a three-year jail sentence and fines of up $687,000 AUD.
Elsom’s lawyer requested an acquittal, and Elsom didn’t attend the trial.
The flanker was working as a rugby coach at a college in Eire on the time of the warrant being issued, and he instantly fled the nation – however has maintained his innocence.
“(Narbonne) achieved stable earnings, had good sporting outcomes, and remained in Professional D2 (the second tier of French rugby) till 2016 and past,” he mentioned in an official assertion in October final yr.
“Plainly I’ve been focused as a scapegoat for the longer term mismanagement of this well-known rugby membership.”
Elsom expanded on his reasoning in additional element in his unique interview with Christy Doran on The Roar Rugby Podcast – explaining his fast departure from Eire and in addition how he believes he has been branded a scapegoat for the membership’s monetary mismanagement.
“They got here straight to the place I used to be working, got here straight to my dwelling and I’d already left by then,” he mentioned.
“I left as a result of it will put me in a state of affairs the place I might be detained in custody and the Irish can be kind of obliged to extradite me to France.
“That will make it much more troublesome for me to have the ability to defend myself from inside a police station or wherever I might be in custody.
“After they make the allegations, I feel that there’s little or no validity to them, particularly nothing that put the membership in hurt’s approach.
“If we undergo the allegations, it’s very, very straightforward for me to defend.
“As a lot as you simply need to say you didn’t do it, these issues undoubtedly occurred. However who’s the sufferer right here? The place have they been in a position to show that the membership was deprived by it? And pivotally, how did these actions result in the relegation of the membership two years after I left in 2018? And that’s a key issue within the case.”
Elsom’s whereabouts are at present unknown as a result of worldwide arrest warrant.
