David Conn: Doubts grow over Geller's role at struggling Exeter

As Third Division club's debts increase and creditors demand repayment, their celebrity co-chairman remains evasive over his involvement

The celebrity spoonbender Uri Geller still makes great play about having "co-chairman of Exeter City" on his colourful CV – although he is not even officially registered as a director – but the club have sunk into a deeper financial crisis after their bank twice refused to honour a cheque sent to the club's major creditor.

Brian O'Neill, an official spokesman for the building company, Mowlem, which is owed £700,000 for building two new stands at St James' Park which opened in 2001, confirmed the bank had returned the cheque twice and said they had not been honoured for "technical reasons".

The company held a meeting with Geller, his co-chairman John Russell and the vice-chairman Mike Lewis on Tuesday, and the club agreed to return within seven days with a solid, guaranteed schedule for repayment. "It was constructive," O'Neill said. "We want to help the club through this. But we gave a clear indication that we expect action from Exeter sooner rather than later."

Russell at first denied that the club had sent a cheque at all, then agreed one had been sent, for over £55,000, but said it had been returned because it had only one signature on it. He was adamant they had sent it only once, and that the cheque had not bounced, but he said they are now having to find a six-figure sum up front for Mowlem, guarantee repayment instalments, and provide personal guarantees. Seven men, serving and former directors, are already tied by personal guarantees of £30-40,000 each, including the former chairman Ivor Doble, who disposed of the club to Russell and Lewis.

Mowlem is the most worrying creditor for the struggling Devon club; the company could wind up the club and pursue the personal guarantees if it is not paid and its patience snaps, but other debts are pounding on the door. Exeter earned around £250,000 from a good FA Cup run; they were televised live at Forest Green Rovers in the first round – worth £100,000 – and earned a decent pay off from an 18,000 crowd at The Valley, where they lost, gallantly, to Charlton Athletic in the third round.

Nevertheless, County Court judgments have not been met; a local firm of solicitors which once acted for the club, Fort, Anstey, Sergeant, is owed £1,815 and has confirmed it has still not been paid. Two firms, Inertia Productions, owed £7,500, and Queensway Publishing, owed £4,000, have instructed bailiffs to enter St James' Park and seize goods.

Lee Harding, the managing director of Queensway, which produced the programme for a gala concert in June featuring Michael Jackson, the magician David Blaine and Geller, said he will issue a winding-up petition if he is not paid in full. "We took the job in good faith," he said. "The club has had substantial money in; creditors should have been paid out of that. It's disgraceful that the directors, including Uri Geller as co-chairman, should make a deal, sell our programmes, then not pay us."

Russell acknowledged the club had debts, but said they were trying their hardest to turn the club round: "We're working 24/7 and we deserve credit for not going into administration like so many clubs, which means people don't get paid. We're trying to pay people, but looking after the big people can mean the little people have to wait and they can get upset."

Russell and Lewis joined the club last May, having done a deal with Doble, a local jeweller who had been on the board some 20 years and, according to the latest accounts, supported the club with over £400,000 of loans. But Exeter, always a financial yoke to directors, had run up £1.8m debts and were struggling to survive. Doble, 77, wanted others to come in to try to keep it going.

Russell, who in 1999 received a 15-month suspended prison sentence for obtaining £180,000 HP finance by deception, has long been involved in football, including a stint as the chairman of Scarborough, the club he took into an Insolvency Act Voluntary Arrangement in 2000. Lewis was formerly the commercial director at Swansea City, whom he briefly owned, then sold for £1 to an Australian businessman, Tony Petty. Lewis was on a salary of £80,000 plus benefits, but the club plunged into administration shortly afterwards, leaving Lewis to claim for his package as a mere unsecured creditor.

Neither man promised to bring major investment to Exeter; they had previously offered to take over Lincoln City with a plan to "pay people on the drip and try to boost the commercial side".

Doble said this week that the deal involves the pair buying his shares, which they are due to complete by the end of this year. Lewis knew Geller, and, as Geller's son Daniel is an Exeter fan, they asked Geller Snr to become a director. Both Geller and his son were formally elected directors of the club, Uri as co-chairman with Russell, at a board meeting on 21 May. However, despite Geller continuing to describe himself, very publicly, as Exeter City's vice-chairman, neither have been officially registered as directors at Companies House. Officially, he is not a director at all.

I asked Russell why Geller has not officially registered, and he said: "You'll have to ask Uri." I called Geller to ask him. He said: "You'll have to ask John Russell." Geller added that he "loved the club", but had nothing to do with the finances and could not answer questions about the debts, the pressing creditors or the meeting with Mowlem. In August, in an interview with Brian Viner for this newspaper, he said: "We had a meeting in May, and I said: 'I'll put up some money,' and we took over." It is unclear whether Geller has, in fact, put any money in; Russell said Geller has, but Geller would not confirm that: "I will not discuss the financial situation or my own position. I have offered cash, and it costs me money because Saturdays are a good day for me to do shows and I have to cancel them to go to matches."

One of the club's more embarrassing debts is £1,716, plus interest, owed to an 18-year-old former member of staff, Emma Naden, who was sacked by Russell in June when she came in during her holiday to finish some work. She said she was handed a letter which criticised her "general disposition and attitude" and told to leave immediately. She was owed overtime and holiday pay but the club did not pay her, so she went to the Employment Tribunal. The club did not reply to her claim at all, and she was awarded a judgment of unfair dismissal. But Ms Naden said this week she had still not been paid the money awarded by the Tribunal and would now have to pursue payment through the court. "I never wanted it to go this far at all," she said. "I loved working there – it was my first job – and I had the club at heart. If they wanted to get rid of me, they could have given a reason and paid what they owed me."

Other members of staff have been sacked, which Russell said was necessary to cut costs. He said the major problem was the wage bill – not for administration staff on £150 per week, but for footballers, running at £90,000 a month.

"We've paid off some substantial debts, tax and VAT. I've put some money in myself," Russell said. "We're trying to clear the problems, but it's well known that football is in crisis and this club is no exception."

One question is puzzling many in Exeter's huddle of loyal fans: why did Lewis and Russell decamp with their families from Swansea and North Yorkshire respectively, to take over a debt-laden minnow of a club in Devon, without the money to rescue it?

They are not being paid a formal salary, although Russell's wife Gillian is working there and other members of their family have worked there too. Russell insisted he has his own income to live on, from 17 rental properties which he owns. "I am not skint," he spelled out. He eventually accepted, though, that the club were contributing towards his and Lewis's "accommodation and general expenses". This is understood to include stays at a local hotel and an apartment on Exeter's waterside costing £700 a month.

"Exeter has nothing to give and nothing to take," he insisted. "I've been a friend of Ivor Doble's for many years and he asked me to help. Why are we doing it? Well, maybe we're bloody stupid."

davidconn@independent.co.uk