Former footballer admits he conned blind friends

A blind former West Bromwich Albion and England footballer who conned two friends out of £2,200 has avoided a jail sentence.

Adam Young took money from two partially blind friends in August and October 2009.

He persuaded the first victim, Stephen Fell, to give him £1,000 to pay back a loan shark he had borrowed money from to fund radical sight-restoring surgery in China.

A second unconnected friend, Neil Barnfather, gave him £1,200 to pay for the phoney surgery in return for a piece of specialist equipment for blind people.

He never received the equipment and Young, aged 25, of Sandon Road, Bearwood, did not have the surgery on either occasion Warwick Crown Court heard yesterday.

Jabeen Akhtar, defending, said the case had had a "considerable impact" on her client and claimed that as a result of "embellished" newspaper reports, he had lost his friends.

Young, who was a valued member of West Bromwich Albion Blind Football Team, was expected to play in the Blind World Cup in August but lost his club and country team place as a result of the case.

He failed to turn up to an earlier hearing but Miss Akhtar said this was because the summons letter was sent to the wrong address.

Young admitted two counts of fraud and was given a 12 month supervision order. He was made to pay £40 for not turning up to the earlier hearing as well as a £15 victim surcharge.