DISCIPLINARY COMMITTEE INQUIRIES
The Disciplinary Committee of the
GBGB were in attendance at a
meeting held on 15, 17 and 25 March
2022
Those present:
Mr H Starte (in the chair)
Mr M Harrod
Mr P ODowd
Mr Glen Rafferty
Former Greyhound Trainer Mr Glen
Rafferty was found to be in breach
of rule 152 (ii) of the GBGB rules of
racing in that he sent abusive and
offensive emails to GBGB staff on 28
October 2021 and 14 January 2022
thereby acting in a manner prejudicial
to the integrity and proper conduct of
Greyhound racing.
Mr Rafferty was in attendance on
15 March 2022, as were Senior
Stipendiary Steward Paul Illingworth,
Stipendiary Steward Simon Storey
and Area Stipendiary Steward Alex
McTaggart. The Committee met on
17 March to decide whether there
had been rule breaches on the
evidence taken on 15 March. Mr
Rafferty was invited but declined to
attend at the resumed meeting on 25
March 2022.
The Committee heard that in 2017
and 2018 Mr Rafferty had been
registered as an Owner Trainer. He
had applied and been granted a
licence as a Greyhound Trainer in
February 2019. The Register showed
that he had renewed his licence for
2020 and 2021.
On 28 October 2021 Mr Rafferty was
contacted by the Senior Stipendiary
Steward Paul Illingworth preparatory
to the residential kennels audit
required for renewal of his trainers
licence being carried out at his home
in Workington, Cumbria. In that email,
addressed to Dear Trainer, Mr
Illingworth provided details on how to
prepare for the audit and instructions
on how to access the Trainers
Portal on the GBGB website to find
documents that had to be completed
before the audit.
Mr Rafferty replied to Mr Illingworth
by email the same day. He wrote:
Whats (sic) the point in all this crap
when this time last year I was racing
at Doncaster and out of the blue I
was discarded like a piece of s**t.
My dogs are approaching 4 years old
and Ive not had a dog race since
last November. You along with the
rest are taking the p**s out of smaller
trainers like myself so go and f**k
yourself.
The Committee heard that Mr
Rafferty had also posted a number of
Tweets containing abusive criticism
of GBGB staff and others. It was
decided to hold a local inquiry
into this apparently abusive and
obstructive behaviour.
In December 2021 Area Stipendiary
Steward Alex McTaggart attempted
to arrange for the hearing of the
Local Inquiry with Mr Rafferty. Mr
Rafferty responded by email on 21
December 2021 asserting, apparently
for the first time, that soon after he
submitted his application to renew
his Greyhound Trainers licence at the
beginning of December 2020, he had
withdrawn that application and had
told the GBGB he wished to cancel
his licence. He subsequently stated
that he had telephoned the offices
of the GBGB and that the GBGB
staff had agreed in that call to cancel
his licence and to refund the 50
deposit he had paid when applying to
renew. Mr Rafferty claimed that since
this cancellation he had not been
a licensed trainer, so that he was
not subject to the jurisdiction of the
GBGB under the Rules of Racing and
there could be no inquiry.
On 14 January 2022 Area Stipendiary
Steward Alex McTaggart sent Mr
Rafferty an email with a calling in
letter, giving the time and date for the
proposed Local Inquiry and inviting
him to propose a suitable alternative
if the proposed time and date was
not suitable. Mr Rafferty responded
that he would not be attending an
inquiry, repeating that the GBGB had
no authority over him because he had
cancelled his licence.
When Mr McTaggart replied by
email that the GBGB only accepted
cancellations of licences in writing,
which Mr Rafferty had failed to do,
Mr Rafferty responded by email in
the following terms: So lets get
this straight. Your employer told me
theyd cancel my licence and without
my knowledge they didnt. (They
lied) or forgot. Either way the call will
be recorded somewhere so its not
my problem. Then 10 months after
cancelling my licence one of your
retarded friends gets offended by a
few words that I sent. The fact I still
get emails 10 months after quitting
frankly p****s me off. So do your job
like Ive told you many times before
and look into and itll prove without a
doubt that you, along with your best
buddies are lying c***s.
Complaints
The Greyhound Board of Great Britain will receive complaints in confidence from anyone concerned about a possible breach of the Rules of Racing.
Send emails to [email protected] or call the GBGB office on 020 7822 0900. Alternatively, write to:
The Greyhound Board of Great Britain Ltd,
Genesis House, 17 Godliman Street, London EC4V 5BD
IMPORTANT NOTICES
Welfare Hotline
If you are concerned about the welfare of any registered racing greyhounds, please call our confidential Welfare Hotline on 020 7822 0917. The line is
available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
You will be prompted to leave a voicemail message giving as much information as you can so that our team can investigate your concerns fully and
ensure appropriate action is taken.
The Disciplinary Committee wish to advise those appearing before them as the affected person that the Disciplinary Committee has the
discretion to take account of any previous breaches of the rule(s) of racing which they consider are relevant to a case being heard before them
irrespective of the date of commission of the breach.
CALENDAR 3
Presenting for the Board, Director
of Regulation Mr Phillip Law told the
Committee the Boards case was that
Mr Rafferty was in breach of Rule 152
(ii) and/or Rule 174 xii (a) by sending
the emails to Mr Illingworth on 28
October 2021 and to Mr McTaggart
on 14 January 2022.
The Committee heard that Mr
Rafferty was notified that a Local
Inquiry would be held by Stipendiary
Steward Simon Storey at Newcastle
Stadium on 1 February 2022. Mr
Rafferty did not attend. At that
point no record had been found of
any telephone call by Mr Rafferty
to the offices of the GBGB. Mr
Storey decided that the emails of
28 October and 14 January had
contained improper and offensive
language towards GBGB staff and
the matter should be referred to the
Disciplinary Committee.
The Committee heard that telephone
records had subsequently been
found to show telephone calls
between Mr Rafferty and the offices
of the GBGB on 1 December and 14
December 2021. The records, seen
by the Committee, showed that Mr
Rafferty had been called from the
offices on 1 December, a call which
lasted 3 minutes and 47 seconds.
He had then made a number of
unanswered calls to the offices on
14 December before a call had been
answered just after 11am. That call
lasted 4 minutes and 26 seconds.
The evidence for the GBGB was
that Mr Rafferty was called on 1
December from the number of
Registry Assistant Bridget OToole.
His call on 14 December was
received on the general switchboard
number. Mr Rafferty had told the
GBGB that when he made this call he
spoke to a woman in the offices who
had then spoken with a man about
Mr Raffertys inquiry before returning
to the phone to conclude the call
with him. The woman was probably
Registry Assistant Bridget OToole or
the then Assistant Registrar Tracey
Moore. The man was probably David
Levy, the Registrar. Neither Ms
Moore nor Ms OToole nor Mr Levy
had any recollection of receiving a
call as described by Mr Rafferty,
agreeing to cancel his licence and
refund his deposit of 50.
Acting Deputy Registrar Jamie
Norris told the Committee that the
GBGB could not and did not accept
cancellation of trainers licences
orally, by telephone, but had to and
did require a trainer to make a written
request by post or email. This was
necessary to confirm the identity of
the person requesting cancellation
and so that, before cancellation,
inquiries could be made to ensure the
welfare of greyhounds in the trainers
care and, if the trainer was attached
to a track, to confirm with the track
that they had been notified of the
trainers intention to relinquish their
licence. A note would also be put
on the trainers client file stating the
date they wished to relinquish their
licence and the date they requested
this. Once this process had been
completed notice of the trainer
relinquishing their licence would be
published in the next edition of the
GBGB Calendar. Mr Raffertys file
showed that a signed licence renewal
application form was received from
him on 28 November 2020. There
was a note on the file that a payment
was subsequently received but the
date or amount of that payment was
not recorded.
In his evidence to the Committee
Mr Rafferty said that after he had
applied to renew his licence and
the 1 December telephone call, on
about 10 December he had been told
that he was not needed as a trainer
at Doncaster Stadium. He said the
track had been getting rid of smaller
trainers like him. He rang the GBGB
offices on 14 December to stop
his licence renewal and cancel his
licence. He said he had spoken to a
woman saying he wanted to cancel
his licence. She had put him on
hold for a couple of minutes while
she went to speak to a man and she
was still speaking to this man when
she came back on the line to him.
She had said it would be fine for him
to cancel and that the GBGB would
refund the 50 deposit he had paid.
Mr Rafferty said he was a bit hazy
about what was said about giving
written notice to cancel his licence,
but he remembered that the woman
had said that normally he would have
had to give notice in writing but that,
for some reason he did not recall, he
did not need to.
The Committee heard that Mr
Rafferty had not had his 50 deposit
refunded or asked for it to be
refunded before the inquiry into his
Tweets and emails to GBGB staff
had begun.
The Committee heard that in March
2021 Mr Rafferty had been trying to
race his greyhounds at Newcastle
Stadium. In Tweets posted at the end
of April 2021 Mr Rafferty complained
that he had been emailing Newcastle
stadium for 3 weeks without getting
a reply and he was frustrated that he
could not get his greyhounds onto a
track. In evidence to the Committee
Mr Rafferty complained that he had
tried to contact Senior Stipendiary
Steward Paul Illingworth 7 times by
telephone about racing greyhounds
at Newcastle Stadium but had not
received any reply to his calls. Mr
Illingworth told the Committee that
the first time he heard from Mr
Rafferty that he did not consider he
was still a licensed trainer was after
he received the 28 October email.
The Committee was shown a Tweet
posted by Mr Rafferty on 27 October
2021 in which, referring to himself,
he wrote when you own numerous
greyhounds and have a license (sic)
but dont have anywhere to race.
The Committee noted that in his
email on 28 October 2021 Mr
Rafferty did not say he was no
longer a GBGB trainer and did not
require his kennels to be audited.
He described himself as one of the
smaller trainers that he claimed Mr
Illingworth and other GBGB officials
were taking the piss out of. The
Committee noted that Mr Rafferty
cooperated with and facilitated the
inspection of his kennels that took
place on 23 November 2021.
Jurisdiction
In submissions for the Board, Mr Law
said it was accepted that there was a
telephone conversation between Mr
Rafferty and someone in the GBGB
Registry on 14 December 2020.
No member of staff in the Registry
remembered this conversation and
so no GBGB member of staff could
dispute what was said. However,
the Board maintained that a trainer
such as Mr Rafferty was required to
give notice in writing to terminate
his licence, which he had not done,
so that Mr Raffertys licence had
not been terminated and he had
continued to be a licensed trainer.
Further, Mr Raffertys conduct
after 14 December 2020 had been
consistent with him believing he was
a licensed trainer.
Mr Law further submitted that
Mr Rafferty was still subject to
the jurisdiction of the GBGB and
answerable for breaches of the Rules
of Racing on 28 October 2021 and
14 January 2022, by virtue of Rule
2 and Rule 162 (vi) (d), even if his
licence had been terminated by him
orally by the telephone conversation
on 14 December 2020. Rule 2 made
it a term of the contract with the
GBGB made when a person became
a licensed trainer that they were
thereafter subject to the GBGB Rules
of Racing and to the jurisdiction of
4 VOL 14 NO 7 8 APRIL 2022
the GBGB, both while they were
licensed and after they ceased to be
licensed. Rule 160 (vi) (d) showed
that the Disciplinary Committee could
consider sanctions against a person
who was not (or was no longer)
bound by the Rules of Racing by
virtue of Rule 2.
The Committee considers that
everything about Mr Raffertys
conduct in relation to continuing
to participate in GBGB
regulated greyhound racing, his
communications and professed
attempted communications with
GBGB personnel and his public
statements in his Tweets through
2021 contradicts the contention that
he considered himself no longer to
be a GBGB licensed trainer.
In the Committees view, this
subsequent behaviour by Mr Rafferty
makes it even more unlikely than it
inherently was that the telephone
conversation between him and the
person at the GBGBs offices on 14
December was as Mr Rafferty says
he hazily recalls. The Committee
considers it very unlikely that he was
told that he would not need to notify
or confirm in writing, by email or
otherwise, that he was terminating
his licence. On the contrary if, as he
says, the issue of written notification
was discussed, it is very much more
likely that he was told to confirm his
cancellation by an email and that,
for whatever reason, he chose not to.
The Committee further finds that if
Mr Rafferty was mistakenly told he
would not need to give written notice
to terminate his licence and that he
would recover the deposit he had
paid, he treated this as informing him
what he could do but he did not in
fact give notice.
The Committee does not consider
that the Board has shown that there
was any contractual requirement of
Mr Rafferty as a licence holder that
his licence could only be terminated
by notification in writing. Equally, the
Committee considers that GBGB
personnel could, if asked, have varied
the agreement to allow termination
without written notice or waived the
requirement for written notice. But
the Committee finds that Mr Rafferty
did not in fact give any notice in
the call on 14 December 2020 that
cancelled his application to renew his
licence and terminated his licence.
The Committee accepts the Boards
submission that, irrespective of
whether Mr Rafferty ceased to be a
licensed trainer as a consequence
of the telephone conversation on 14
December 2020, by virtue of Rule
2 Mr Rafferty was at the time of
the alleged breaches and remains
subject to the GBGB Rules of Racing
and subject to the jurisdiction of the
GBGB in respect of those breaches.
However, the Committee does
not consider that Rule 160 (vi) (d)
establishes the GBGBs jurisdiction
to pursue these matters. That Rule
is not directed at enabling GBGB
to bring disciplinary proceedings
to warn off (or impose any other
sanction on) persons not subject
to the Rules of Racing and the
jurisdiction of the GBGB by virtue of
Rule 2 independent of proceedings
against persons who are. Rather
it is directed at the position where
the Board seeks to warn off
such persons as well as persons
proceeded against who are subject
to the Rules and jurisdiction of the
GBGB by virtue of Rule 2.
Breaches
Addressing the Committee, Mr
Rafferty did not identify any treatment
by the Senior Stipendiary Steward or
any other GBGB official to justify his
assertion in his email of 28 October
2021 that they had been taking the
piss out of him or other trainers.
He did not attempt to justify his
statement in his email of 14 January
2022 that the Area Stipendiary
Steward or other GBGB staff were
liars. His position was that other
people may get upset by the words
he used in his communications
with GBGB staff but that was their
problem not mine.
The Committee accepted that Mr
Rafferty may have been entitled to
be frustrated or angry at the situation
he said he had found himself in,
of being a trainer with good, well
cared for greyhounds who could not
find a stadium to race them at. But
his emails had been unnecessarily
and violently abusive and offensive.
GBGB staff and officials were entitled
not to be subjected to this treatment
and the GBGB was entitled and
bound to protect its staff and officials
and the conduct of the sport of
greyhound racing from such conduct.
The Committee found that Mr
Raffertys conduct in sending each
of the emails in question did not
come within the conduct proscribed
by Rule 174 xii. In no realistic sense
had Mr Rafferty acted in any violent
or improper manner on any land or
premises as required for there to be
a breach of this Rule.
However, the Committee was very
clear that Mr Rafferty was in breach
of Rule 152 (ii) in that by sending
each of the emails in question he
had acted in a manner that was
prejudicial to the integrity and to the
proper conduct of greyhound racing
as regulated by the GBGB.
The Committee heard that prior to
these breaches Mr Rafferty had an
unblemished disciplinary record.
That made it particularly regrettable
that these proceedings had been
necessary. However, his email of
28 October 2021 was seriously
and entirely unnecessarily abusive
to the senior stipendiary steward,
Mr Illingworth, who had simply
been carrying out his duties trying
to assist trainers with the audits
of their kennels in the particularly
difficult circumstances of the Covid
pandemic. Mr Rafferty may have felt
he had grounds for grievance in what
were difficult times for him personally,
but that was no excuse for abusive
and disruptive behaviour that was
damaging to the integrity and good
conduct of properly regulated
greyhound racing. The email sent to
Mr McTaggart in January was equally
unacceptably offensive and abusive
behaviour towards GBGB officials
and was disruptive of the disciplinary
proceedings required by the October
email. It showed a complete lack
of insight on Mr Raffertys part why
his conduct had been and was
unacceptable. Appearing before the
Committee, Mr Rafferty had shown
some greater insight, but he had
shown no remorse or regret and had
offered no apology. The appropriate
sanction was that Mr Rafferty receive
a reprimand in respect of both
breaches and pay in respect of both
breaches a fine in total of 500.

EXTERNAL LINK

On the top of all this, i rang the gbgb last week and they said they`d ring me back. I`m still waiting!

I`m not allowed to own or train greyhounds ever again unless i pay this 500 made up fine that the gbgb concocted.

I am allowed however to breed and rear pups but at the stage of racing i`ve to give them all away....

Is there anyone in the gbgb office thats actually put a lead on a greyhound?