Jail shame of former United star
Date published: 06 December 2011

JAIL . . . shamed Ronnie Wallwork
AN ex–Manchester United star from Failsworth has been jailed for 15 months for selling parts from stolen high–performance cars.
Police stumbled on the illegal vehicle–breaking operation of Ronnie Wallwork (34) while investigating a string of unconnected armed robberies across Lancashire.
The former Failsworth School pupil was working out of a rented scrapyard unit in Newton Heath when he was arrested last November.
It emerged he had sold a VW Touran engine and parts from a BMW 318i on eBay, while he was observed driving a Mazda Furano into the scrapyard three days after it was stolen from a car dealer.
The three stolen vehicles he was linked to were worth more than £43,000 in total, Preston Crown Court heard.
Wallwork pleaded guilty to three counts of handling stolen goods at an earlier hearing. Sentencing him, Judge Simon Newell said he could not agree with the defence barrister’s request to impose a suspended jail term.
He said: “These were high–value items that were stolen. It seems to me they were taken in a professional and sophisticated way. There was an element of organisation and sophistication in what went on.”
Rachel Woods, defending, said: “There was no evidence to suggest that the defendant was responsible for the organised thefts of the vehicles or had any input in that. He had clearly succumbed to temptation in a stage of his life when his finances had taken a dramatic turn for the worse.”
She said that Wallwork’s soccer career was “tragically cut short” when he was the victim of a bar stabbing about four years ago which almost killed him.
Wallwork, who represented England at under–20 level, joined United as a trainee in 1993 but struggled to command a first team place and was loaned to a number of clubs before he joined West Brom in 2002. Loan periods at Bradford City, Barnsley and Huddersfield Town followed before he moved to Sheffield Wednesday in 2008 where he made seven appearances.
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