A English racing tipster accused of fraud after setting up two racehorse syndicates told a jury today that he was 'proud of what he had done for racing'.
Ron Dawson, 61, who used to live in Newmarket, Suffolk but has since moved to Alicante, Spain, said his aim had always been to give the 'man in the street' honest information.
Dawson, the central figure behind two companies formed in Newmarket in the 1990s - Classic Bloodstock and Classic Bloodstock II, denies illegally authorising a #100,000 loan to himself, false accounting and conspiracy to defraud.
He was giving evidence in the fourth week of a trial at Basildon Crown Court in Essex.
His wife Maureen, 41, who was also a director of the two Classic Bloodstock companies, also denies conspiracy to defraud.
The couple`s former accountant, Andrew Irish, 48, of the village of Saxon Street, near Newmarket, also denies false accounting.
Dawson told jurors how he had worked in shipyards in his home town of Barrow in Furness, Cumbria, after leaving school at 15 with no qualifications.
He explained how he had gone on to develop a love of racing through betting and had eventually moved to Newmarket to become a tipster.
He said he had become the 'number one tipster' and built up a successful business during the 1960s and 70s.
That business had then collapsed when a bet went 'catastrophically' wrong.
He had then built up a second successful career as a tipster which had culminated in the setting up of the two Classic Bloodstock companies in the early and mid-1990s.
The idea of the companies was that members of the public could buy shares in top quality racehorses.
Around 12,000 people bought shares in the two companies - investing on average #500 each.
The ventures failed and the Department of Trade and Industry said Classic Bloodstock II was set up as a 'vehicle for dishonesty'.
The DTI, which has brought the prosecution against the Dawsons and Irish, has outlined a series of alleged illegal manoeuvres.
But it accepts that neither Ronald or Maureen Dawson or Irish made significant amounts of money out of the venture.
'I am proud of what I have done for racing,' Dawson told the jury. 'I always had it in the back of my mind. It was the most important thing in the world to me.
'I was always wanting the man in the street, the shipbuilder, the working man, to have a fair chance of getting some good information. That was what I set out to do and that is what I believed I accomplished.'
He added: 'The object (of the Classic Bloodstock companies) is giving people a lot of fun in racing.
'They could come around to my stables and ride the horses. Some did. They could come with their families and enjoy the facilities at my stables.
'And if we were lucky enough to buy a horse that won a Classic - bingo! But it is a tough game.'
The case continues.
