A player for Bedford Town Football Club could face an 11-year jail sentence after being caught with half a kilo of cocaine.
Rory McAuley, 31, pleaded guilty in October 2021 to being concerned in the supply of cocaine, possessing cocaine with intent to supply and possession of criminal property.
McAuley was signed to King’s Lynn Town at the time of the offence. After his contract was terminated in June 2021, he signed to Bedford Town in September.
Following a court appearance at Norwich Court Crown in February 2022, he was told he will be sentenced later this year for the offences that involve a “not an insignificant quality of class A drugs, sold over a period of time for personal gain”.
“He was found with half a kilo of cocaine on the day of his arrest and there are several days’ worth of text messages which we say are indicative of dealing on previous occasions,” said prosecutor, Stephen Spence.
“Of course, whilst Mr McAuley alone knows what the sort of quantities involved were, the crown would suggest similar quantities, but even if you pared it right back to perhaps only 100g on each of those occasions one would still have half a kilo.”
McAuley’s barrister, Jenni Dempster, said there was “no direct evidence whatsoever of the quantities of drugs involved” in relation to text messages.
Sentencing is due this week.
A spokesperson for Bedford Town FC said they did not want to comment at this stage.
