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Island businessmen named in snooker match-fixing report

Five Isle of Man businessmen have been named in an official report which found Snooker player Stephen Lee guilty of match-fixing charges.

Lee's penalty will be announced next Tuesday with the sport's governing body expected to push for a life ban.

Lee has denied the allegations which centre on seven games in 2008 and 2009, including a World Championship match.

The report from Sport Resolutions - the independent dispute resolution service for sport in the U.K. - details betting on the matches in question from broadly three groups.

One is called the Clague Group - Isle of Man based Neal Clague was Stephen Lee's manager at the time.

Others named in the report as associates of Neal Clague are Michael Curphey, Andrew Gibbs, Keith Bernard and Mike Vipond.

It states near to £35,000 was made from betting on Lee to lose in these matches.

And further, all bettors except Andrew Gibbs and Neal Clague made a profit overall from wagers on Lee in the matches in question and on other games not under investigation.

Manx Radio is seeking comment from all the businessmen named in the report written by Adam Lewis QC - so far Andrew Gibbs and Mike Vipond have strongly denied being part of any betting syndicate.

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