Edinburgh crime: Women's football boss found guilty of fraud scam to let her live rent-free in Edinburgh flat

Zola McGoldrick convicted of fraud after two-day trial at Edinburgh Sheriff Court

A director of the Scottish Women’s Premier League carried out an elaborate fraud scam in a bid to live rent free in a plush Edinburgh city centre flat.

Zola McGoldrick, 50, rented out a three-bedroom flat for over 18 months but failed to hand over a penny in rent after claiming she had been caught up in an international money laundering scheme. McGoldrick told landlord Roderick Glen she could not pay him the £1,500 per month rent due to several of her bank accounts being frozen. The SWPL director even forged letters from RBS, Lloyds and HMRC in her effort to convince the flat owner her funds were unavailable to her.

McGoldrick, also known as Zola Affley, scammed Mr Glen out of a total of £28,438.75 by failing to pay him any rental cash between September 2018 and May 2020. The shamed stalwart of the Scottish women’s game denied the allegations but was found guilty of fraud following a two-day trial at Edinburgh Sheriff Court this week.

Zola McGoldrick claimed she could not pay her rent because she had been caught up in an international money laundering scheme.

McGoldrick was appointed as a director of the inaugural SWPL, representing Edinburgh outfit Boroughmuir Thistle FC, at a historic meeting at Hampden Park in May last year. The mother-of-two was then presented with the prestigious SFA Regional Volunteer of the Year for Adult Football award just three months later.

Mr Glen told the court he and his wife owned a ground floor flat in the Capital’s Marchmont area and agreed to rent the property to McGoldrick for £1500 per month in September 2018. He allowed McGoldrick and her family to move in before any deposit was paid and when the money failed to arrive in his account he said the Australian national gave him “a complicated explanation”.

Mr Glen, 74, told the trial that over the next few months McGoldrick told him she had become the victim of an international money laundering scam that was preventing her from accessing her funds. The landlord said she had provided him with copies of letters she claimed were from the Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds Bank and HMRC confirming the problems with her accounts.

The pensioner said: “It was unlike anything I had ever heard but I believed it. I was shocked and surprised but had no reason to believe it was not real.” Mr Glen allowed McGoldrick to stay at the property in the hope he would eventually receive the rent payments but told the court no cash was ever handed over. The landlord then realised he had been conned and all the documents from the two banks and HMRC were fakes after checking up on McGoldrick online.

Landlord Roderick Glen believed McGoldrick's story until he discovered she had been taken to a housing tribunal by her previous landlady for not paying rent.

He told the court he discovered she had been taken to a housing tribunal by her previous landlady for not paying rent. The court heard McGoldrick was declared bankrupt in March 2020 and she and her family were eventually kicked out Mr Glen’s property owing rent of more than £28,000 in May 2020.

The SWPL director did not give evidence but two short clips from her police interview were played to the court in which she was heard to state she “did not deliberately” try to defraud the landlord.

On Thursday, Sheriff Roderick Flinn found McGoldrick guilty of the fraud charge, saying said he found the Crown witnesses to be “credible and reliable” and they had given their evidence “clear and accurately”. The sheriff added in his opinion it was “inconceivable” the documents provided to Mr Glen had been “fraudulently constructed by a third party” as claimed by McGoldrick.

Sentence was deferred for reports to next month and McGoldrick, of Leith, Edinburgh, was released on bail.

A spokesperson for the SWPL said: “This has come as a complete shock to everyone at the league. We were completely unaware of this situation until today. Zola has tendered her resignation from her non-executive position at the SWPL and it has been accepted by the board with immediate effect.”