Carlton Town call in MP Vernon Coaker
The loss adjusters had written to the club back in October and the two main reasons given at that time were that the groundsman had not responded appropriately after the phone line was cut and that the alarm was then non-operational.
The club have since provided evidence that the alarm was still operating and hotly dispute it is the job of their groundsman to tackle intruders, which he could well have had to do had he been able to get to the ground as it is believed the criminals hid at the ground for one and a half hours before making their move.
No letter has still been forthcoming to the club from Everest Underwriters, only a verbal confirmation from the clubs brokers Red Insure that the claim was rejected and to refer back to the original letter from the loss adjusters.
We understand that Coaker and local council chiefs are baffled by the decision and the club has confirmed that figures in the insurance industry have contacted the club to offer advice.
The Gedling MP is one of the most highly respected in the country and a former Minister of State at the Home Office. The club has also been given more time to pay invoices relating to the claim and we understand that the Chairman has now personally been to see the Managing Director of one particular company who is owed money by the club, to give his personal guarantee that the invoices will be paid by the end of the year, even if the club has to make further sacrifices to ensure that is the case.
All at the club are working hard selling Christmas draw tickets and the club are hoping the weekend of 14th and 15th December when they hold their annual Christmas luncheon and Christmas draw will at least temporarily ease their money worries.
In the meantime, the club are pondering their next move and hoping the Gedling MP can help get to the bottom of things.
Carlton Town Chairman Mick Garton told presenter Mark Dennison that the club had still not had their claim settled and that they were suffering cash flow problems as a result and he also indicated the insurance company were refusing to pay out on a technicality, despite the fact that both the criminals who carried out the raid were behind bars due to the club"s outstanding cctv footage. The club then would have been hoping for a cash boost from this 3rd qualifing round game, but it wasn"t to be as they were defeated 3-1 by the excellent Blue Square North outfit. The chairman refused to comment further on the Radio Nottingham interview but did tell us "massive credit to Bradford Park Avenue"s players and supporters,they were all a credit to their club today and the best team won ,having said that ,i thought our players gave their all and as a club,we can ask for no more.Their are a number of issues at the club that need addressing,the main one is concerning the insurance claim but i will deal with that and other urgent matters in the coming days with senior figuers at the club and make a statement in due course "concluded the Carlton Town chief.
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| Monday November 19th 2012 Nottingham Post |
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| Carlton Town Club house which was broken into |
CHAIRMAN DEVASTATED BY CARNAGE
Carlton Town Chairman Mick Garton admitted it was the support of friends of the club, the club committee, captain Ashley Kitchen and manager Les McJannet that gave him the will to carry on following the carnage at the ground in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Although the club are limited to what they can put into the public domain at present due to the ongoing police investigation, we can reveal that the club was raided in the early hours of Saturday morning. Gate receipts taken from the Gainsbrough game are known to have been stolen, club sources have confirmed, there was also extensive damage to the sports bar and equipment within it and the bar is now closed until Wednesday when Carlton take on Worksop.
Auditors are accessing the stock loss believed to run into hundreds of pounds and the club is picking up the pieces ,after this latest incident which comes just months after the fire ,which caused extensive damage to the entrance to the ground.
“I suppose we have to accept that is the kind of society we now live in and this kind of thing is par for the course” said chairman Mick Garton.
“It hurts, we are a not for profit club, I along with others put a lot of time and money into this community facility and it rips at your heart when someone does what’s been done here and I seriously thought about calling it a day Saturday morning when I saw the destruction ,but with the help of many others, we all put in 12 hour shifts and got the place straight and cleaned up, moved out the damaged equipment we could, we will reopen on Wednesday when the repair contractors have done their job.”
A new kit and the charity box were among items stolen we understand but Garton has taken inspiration from others involved at the club.
“The club captain sent me a nice message Saturday evening, the manager has been on the phone with his support, sponsors and supporters have come forward with offers of help also and the committee have been brilliant. I just have to take on board we have some good people down there, the downside is our insurance access is over £1,000 given our location ,so whatever the insurance outcome we will take a big hit, I just hope the police can catch these people.” Concluded Garton
Photographs By Roy Mullin except** inside club house Photograph courtesy of Carlton Town FC Website
NB .
The club had all the gate and bar takings from their match against Gainsborough stolen after Gainsborough came to play a friendly as part of the deal that took Terry Hawkridge to the Blue Square North club as well as losing kit and a substantial amount of spirits, the clubhouse sports bar and equipment in it was smashed up with repair bills running in to thousands of pounds.
Club Chairman Mick Garton admitted it was his lowest point as Chairman of the club ‘I was pretty low after the incident itself,but this has just rubbed salt in to the wounds.’
‘The fact the criminals are behind bars and unable to rob other properties means we have saved other insurance pay outs which would no doubt have followed if they had continued with their crime spree.’
’The fact they were caught due to our fantastic CCTV system, which is not even an insurance condition makes the decision even harder to accept.’
‘We await the follow up letter to find out the exact details but have been left devastated by this; we are mostly made up of volunteers at the club who put in our own time and money, we are a community football club and this decision has come ironically a day before we hold a family day at the ground; the timing couldn’t be more ironic.’
‘We are now left in a position where we have got to work harder than we already do to try to raise the money to pay these invoices, I would plead with our suppliers to please bear with us during this difficult time.’
‘We really did not see this coming, I believe matters that we thought we’d cleared up after the appeal would lead to this being sorted out, but that is obviously not the case; there has not even been a goodwill gesture, just a flat ‘no’.’ Concluded the Chairman.
Commercial Manager Tim Harris said ‘In 20 years involved in football, this is the most devastating decision I can remember, it’s difficult enough trying to raise money in this economic climate and now having to make up this shortfall, well I can’t quite believe it!’
‘We are volunteers and me and my team will do our best for the club to try and pick up the pieces after this shocking news, hopefully the Carlton community will rally around and we can get over this.’
‘The club will publish more details when they become available but at the moment are in a state of shock and disappointment.’ Stated Harris.
Article used with kind permission of CarltonTown FC Club Chairman Mick Garton..
Photographs By Roy Mullin except** inside club house Photograph courtesy of Carlton Town FC Website
I was originally going to interview Mr. Garton about the break in but due to his work commitments in view of the incident i spoke to him briefly via phone and met briefly at the Club and he allowed me to use information from the clubs website
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