Football Referee Charged With Hacking Former Colleague’s Email

A Football Association (FA)-registered referee has been charged with perverting the course of justice and unauthorised access to computer data following an 18 month investigation into the alleged hacking of a former FA official.

Dean Mohareb was first arrested last October, when a number of electrical items were seized from his home, and again in February.

According to The Guardian, Greater Manchester Police have confirmed two other men have been charged with perverting the course of justice – Vincent Rossi, an FA-qualified tutor, and Liam Cliff. All three will attend a magistrates’ court next week, where it is believed the case will be referred to the crown court. If found guilty, the defendants could face a prison sentence.

Referee hacker

The charges focus on the alleged hacking of the personal and work email accounts of Janie Frampton, the FA’s former national referee manager for education and training and the most senior woman in the FA’s refereeing department.

Frampton was sacked last year after a series of leaked emails were published alleging that she had offered FA Cup Semi-Final tickets to a British Airways steward in exchange for a flight upgrade for herself and three female referees on a work trip.

Emails from an anonymous address were sent to a number of senior football officials, including FIFA president Sepp Blatter, calling for her removal, and the hacker also discussed the case in chat rooms under the pseudonym ‘pinkladyref’. Frampton, now CEO of Sports Officials UK, denied any wrong doing and reached an out of court settlement with the FA following an employment tribunal.

In December 2011, the Russian organising committee for the 2018 FIFA World Cup denied that it had hacked the email accounts of England’s bid to host the tournament as well as the US bid for the 2022 World Cup.

Members of England’s bid team were questioned by the FBI into allegations of corruption during the World Cup bidding process last December and the FIFA presidential election in June.

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