Ex English footballer sentenced after being arrested with fake euros

PALMA
A former English footballer has been sentenced to serve three years in jail by the High Court in Madrid after being arrested last year for using fake 50 euro notes.

32 -year-old John Goodwin was arrested by members of the Palmanova Guardia Civil at his family home in Costa de la Calma in August of last year after apparently passing off fake 50 euro notes at a number of stores in the Calvia area.

According to the Guardia Civil, when his house was searched, they found 4'000 fake euros stashed in a video film sleeve.
The former footballer was held on remand in Palma prison and then moved to Madrid were he awaited trial.
His case finally came to court last Wednesday and two members of the Palmanova Guardia Civil and two Calvia Local police officers were called to give evidence.

A representative from the Bank of Spain was also called, he told the court that the quality of the fake notes was “extraordinary.” Second-division football player Goodwin maintained his innocence throughout the hearing but the court found him guilty and sentenced him to serve three years in jail and pay a fine of three euros per day for the next 20 months.

But, Goodwin continues to maintain that he was framed and that it was the police who planted the fake notes in the video case.
However, it appears that his defense crumbled when the court heard that the serial number of the notes used in Calvia shops matched the serial number on the notes found at Goodwin's Majorca home. According to investigators who worked on the case, the fake notes were brought in from the United Kingdom.