The regulatory body for thoroughbred racing in New South Wales – Racing NSW – has started an investigation into the relationship between Steve Fletcher, a famous punter, and former trading manager of Tabcorp Sally Snow and, by extension, the professional punter Nathan Snow who is her husband.
On March 6th, Mrs Snow was warned off all NSW tracks and later resigned from her position as trading manager at Tabcorp, following a number of requests to hand over her mobile phone to staff which she refused to do.
She refused to provide racetrack stewards with any evidence or information at an inquiry, taking advantage of a privilege against self-incrimination which is available to her under a common law privilege. As a result of her doings, she is not able to attend any racecourse in the country, cannot have any links with horse ownership and is not allowed to place a bet with gambling companies in Australia.
I'd be guessing that this unravelling story involving Sally Snow surely now involves the best from within the @nswpolice fraud squad @RacenetTweets
You generally don't exert your right to not incriminate yourself if there is nothing to incriminate you for?
Integrity waning….— Dave_Baron (@nuffnuff68) March 6, 2019
As revealed by The Sydney Morning Herald, there is an ongoing investigation held by Racing NSW in three major aspects of the relationship between Fletcher and the Snow family.
Stewards of the regulatory body investigate aim to find out whether TAB prices were being manipulated in order to offer inflated odds on certain horses, which Mr Fletcher was able to take advantage of. They also investigate into the limits placed on particularly successful punters as there were doubts that such limits were not placed on Fletcher, allowing him to place bets which ended up bringing him massive winnings. Racing NSW experts are also investigating whether Mr Fletcher was using betting accounts registered in other names when betting with the TAB.
For the time being, there have not been any charges pressed on any of the individuals involved.
Fletcher Faced Several Probes into Unrelated Cases of Dishonesty
As part of the investigation against Sally Snow, a famous jockey has also been required to hand over his phone, without him being accused of any wrongdoings. Reportedly, the jockey has provided cooperation in the process.
The Snows, however, have deleted their Twitter accounts, and Nathan Snow even resigned from his position from a South Australia-registered racehorse syndication start-up. As mentioned above, Mrs Snow also stepped down from her job as a senior trading manager for thoroughbred racing after being warned off.
For those of you who answered Sally Snow you were correct. Sally Snow. Wife of Nathan Snow who "recently stepped down from a racehorse syndication start up" ??? https://t.co/VNu0L8uKCl
— ralph horowitz (@rtralphy) March 14, 2019
This could be the first time when Sally and Nathan Snow have faced such a massive action against them, but Steve Fletcher has not. Several years ago, he got similar public attention, after he and Eddie Hayson won millions on an NRL match between New Zealand Warriors and Newcastle Knights in 2006. There were rumours that the two punters were aware of the fact that the halfback Andrew Johns was injured before placing their bets, but both of them denied that and no charges were ever pressed against them.
In 2018, Fletcher once again got in the spotlight, after facing charges of 78 counts of dishonesty and deception to take financial advantage. This time, Fletcher and another punter, Darren Azzopardi, were alleged to using false identities to keep their gambling activities with a number of gambling operators in the dark in the period from September 2012 and March 2013.
- Author
Daniel Williams
