Crusaders could face heavy fine

Wednesday 2nd December 2009

Above: Jace van Dijk. One of the Crusaders' players asked to leave the UK last season by the UK Border Agency.

Welsh club Crusaders could be fined £60,000 over the visa fiasco that led to the deportation of six of their players earlier this year.

Jace van Dijk, Tony Duggan, Damien Quinn, Josh Hannay, Darren Mapp and Mark Dalle Cort were all found to have breached the conditions of their UK entry in a previous year and asked to leave the country in August.

An investigation by the UK Border Agency has concluded that Crusaders should not face any criminal proceedings but a civil penalty notice has been served on the troubled Super League club.

A spokesperson for UKBA said: "The employers now face a fine of up to £60,000 unless they can prove to the agency that they carried out legally-required checks before employing workers from outside Europe."

The Rugby Football League feel they are now in a position to step up their own investigation into the matter.

Chief executive Nigel Wood said: "The position was that we needed confirmation from the UK Border Agency they had concluded their inquiries.

"That has only just been received so we are at liberty now to commence any rugby league-specific inquiry, which we will be doing.

"We couldn't act beforehand because it might have been prejudicial to inquiries that were going on externally."