WPR2ND
8 MARCH 12, 2020    PONTY AND RHONDDA
Scrap metal dealer Leonard
Phillips’ van was his undoing
and contributed to his role in a
huge gambling scandal being
uncovered. Lydia Stephens tells
a very personal tale
Every family has at least
one member with a leg-
endary story to tell.
My great-grandfather
passed away when I was
a child, so I was too young
to hear the story from the
horse’s mouth, but luck-
ily I have history books to
look back on.
“A fellow I know as Bill
came to see me. He of-
fered me 35 nicker to do
the job. An ‘easy’ he said. I
am only a small end in the
big wheel. I don’t know
the big shots.”
These are the words
that my great-grandfather,
a scrap metal dealer from
the Rhondda called Leon-
ard Phillips, said to the
police after weeks of de-
nying his involvement in
one of the greatest British
horse racing scandals of
the 20th century.
The story is not too far
from a plot straight out of
Peaky Blinders and it hap-
pened during a time when
betting shops were still il-
legal.
It was the 1950s and
things were a little differ-
ent back then.
Len was a lovable rogue
and the man to go to if you
needed to get a job done.
“You couldn’t give
your name to the book-
ies back then,” said his-
torian and newspaper
columnist Brian Lee,
who has written exten-
sively about racing.
“You would write bets
on the back of some paper
from a cigarette box.
“I used to write ‘Blacky’
on mine, as that was the
name of my dog. Some-
times the police would tell
the bookies they were go-
ing to ‘nab’ them one day.
“They knew it went on
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Welshman paid £35
but let it happen.”
The Francasal Affair of
almost cost bookies
1953 threatened to cost
the betting industry the
equivalent of £1m and re-
sulted in four men being
imprisoned for fraud and
one jailed for damaging
Her Majesty’s property.
My great-grandfather
Len, who was affection-
ately known as Dad and
had served in Greece dur-
ing World War II, was right
– his involvement in the
scandal was small, but he
was the first out of five to
be jailed for the whole af-
fair.
Refusing to grass on
his accomplice, he re-
mained unnamed until
Len’s death in 2002 when
his widow, May, revealed
the name to author David
Ashforth in his book Ring-
ers and Rascals.
On Thursday 16, 1953,
they took Len’s van to Eng-
land and burned through
a telephone cable near
Bath racecourse, making
sure that no off-course
bets reached the course
to shorten the odds of a
“ringer” replacing a run-
ner called Francasal.
The French-bred horse
was supposed to be run-
ning in a race that day but
was replaced by a ringer –
a phrase commonly used From top: Leonard Phillips, Len with his wife May
in horse racing when a and his scrap metal van
slow horse is replaced by
a fast one.
The much faster horse, other men involved in the backed couldn’t get back Yard. “But if they hadn’t the area at the time. Sus- being part of a certain
Santa Amaro, was put in affair. to the course to drop the paid to get the wires cut picious as to what the two electric telegraph belong-
his place, and won. The horse, which was odds for Francasal, and they still would have won men were up to, he jotted ing to Her Majesty’s Post-
Though the master- heavily backed at book- Santa Amaro’s win should a lot of money and might down the numberplate, master General”.
minds behind it all argued makers outside the race- have made the five men have gotten away with it,” which allowed police to He was jailed for three
their case in a trial at the course, kept its 10-1 odds wealthier by the equiva- said Mr Lee. track Leonard to Dinas in months and was a small
Old Bailey, the swap was due to the cut wire, which lent of £1m. My great-grandad Len the Rhondda Valley. part of a plot that has been
not an accident and was was put down to an elec- But bookies smelled was the first to be ar- According to Mr Lee, remembered in the horse
orchestrated by a Cardiff trical fault. a rat, refused to pay out, rested, as his red scrap Leonard was charged racing industry ever since.
bookmaker and a Maid- This meant that news and the case went on to be metal van was spotted by with “unlawfully and ma- A trial at the Old Bai-
enhead bookie with three of the horse being heavily investigated by Scotland a maintenance worker in liciously cutting a cable, ley followed and a Cardiff
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