George Reynolds

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see George Reynolds (disambiguation).

George Reynolds (b. 1937) is a controversial British businessman best known for his time as chairman of Darlington Football Club.

In his early years Reynolds was a safeblower in a bank-robbing criminal gang. He was caught and served time in jail. When he left prison he still had the money. He used this to set up a relative empire of businesses, including a £25m kitchen surface factory based in Shildon and went on to amass a £300 million fortune. He was chairman of Darlington Football Club and built the team a new stadium costing £20 million, which he named after himself. Reynolds was originally very popular with fans but he then took the club into administration and left the club in January 2004.^{[citation needed]} The stadium was renamed shortly afterwards.

He married and had a child, Paul. He built the Witton Hall mansion on the grounds of a cottage in the village.^{[citation needed]} Some extravagant purchases included jets, helicopters and a swimming pool a house next door to the Spice Girls in London, a yacht, Spanish villa and a fleet of cars.

He was tried for charges of laundering drug money after being stopped with £500,000 of cash in the boot of his car. The court heard how Reynolds was now almost penniless having sold the houses, cars and yacht. In October 2005 Reynolds was found guilty of tax evasion and sentenced to three years imprisonment. Reynolds was released on 6th December 2006 but is electronically tagged and subject to a curfew. Reynolds now intends to renew his business career.^[1]

He invested about £27m in Darlington FC and had a dream of taking the club into the Premiership.