| Updated: 9/12/2012 6:44 pm |
Published: 9/12/2012 6:42 pm
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A former Bixby Soccer Club board member is under investigation. FOX23 is not releasing the name because the person hasn’t been charged. The former board member is suspected of embezzling more than $10,000 from the club.
It took the organization a year to realize the money paid for fees was disappearing.
Addam Coble has coached his daughter and her teammates in the Bixby Soccer Club for a year and a half. He realized this season something was wrong when records indicated he hadn’t paid for her to play this season when he says he did. Coble says that would’ve hurt his daughter and the other children he coaches.
"They would've been broken hearted,” he said. “Soccer means a lot to these kids. It's their way to be competitive and it would've destroyed them."
Coble coaches kids 8 and under. He says his daughter has a lot of passion for the game.
"She loves the sport,” Coble told FOX23. ”She asked me about during the winter months, summer months, when is soccer starting?"
But with money in the club going missing it put the season in jeopardy for some players. Police say a former board member was pocketing the cash with her significant other.
Detectives add the Bixby Soccer Club called them back in July to ask officers to investigate the case.
While police investigated, another organization, the Green Country Soccer Association, stepped in to pay for kids who could’ve been robbed of a season.
"They just stepped up to the plate for the kids,” said Cobles. “It was very honorable for them to do that."
Police say this is why they encourage everyone to hold on to their paperwork.
"Be sure you have your receipt so that you can show proof that you paid your dues," Bixby Police Detective Andrew Choate told FOX23.
Coble is glad the Bixby Soccer Club called police to hold the people involved accountable.
"They've challenged themselves as far as getting the Bixby Soccer Club up to speed and getting it on track and to make sure we're taken care of," he told FOX23.
The President of the Bixby Soccer Club says he can't comment on the investigation right now but says they are financially sound.
Bixby police have recommended charging the pair with bank fraud, embezzlement and grand larceny charges. The final decision will be up to the Tulsa county District Attorney’s office.
