Following yesterday’s earlier announcement that Stephen Lee had been arrested in connection with an investigation into suspicious betting patterns, it has since been confirmed that he has been released, firmly denies the allegations and is not expecting to be charged. Click below for more…
A statement released by Stephen’s management group On Q Promotions reads as follows:
”On Q Promotions can confirm, as Stephen Lee’s management company, that Stephen Lee was taken to a West Midlands police station for questioning on Thursday 11th February 2010.
”Stephen cooperated fully with the police inquiry and was released without charge. He does not expect any charge to be made and denies any involvement with cheating or betting irregularities.
Stephen is now concentrating on practising hard to achieve qualification for the World Championships and to fulfil all of his exhibition commitments.”
As reported by the Wiltshire Gazette and Herald, Stephen has said:
“I got home really late last night.”
”I will say that I was treated really badly yesterday, so I’m still in a bit of shock.”
And his manager Paul Mount of On Q Promotions had this reaction:
”He’s dumbfounded that he’s been arrested at all, and so am I.
”I’ve been working with Stephen now for about a year and never ever did I or anybody else in our organisation or any of the other players involved in our team of players, not one of us ever thought Stephen was involved in something like that.
”It’s come as a real shock to all of us. And I one hundred per cent support Stephen and believe that he has not been involved in any way with any cheating or betting irregularities.
”He’s a lovely man. If you go back a few seasons Stephen was provisionally number one in the world.
”He’s had a bit of a bad run and at the moment he’s down at number 25 in the world.
”He’s working his socks off to try and get back up the rankings, so the last thing he’s going to want to do is be throwing frames away.
”He wants to get back into the top 16, and he’s not going to do anything to jeopardise that.”
Regardless of the outcome, hopefully there will be a quick resolution to this story, unlike the Stephen Maguire/Jamie Burnett investigation which remains ongoing more than a year after the match in question.
On a related note I also noticed this morning that over at Global Snooker they are reporting that Mark King was left out of this year’s Championship League due to suspicious betting patterns during his matches last year. I had not been aware of that and without knowing the full facts, I have a lot of sympathy for Mark as nothing has been produced to show that he has had any involvement in such patterns.