Former Manchester United prodigy Wallwork jailed for selling stolen sports car partsHe once lined up with David Beckham and Paul Scholes, and Sir Alex Ferguson described him as ‘marvellous’.
But Ronnie Wallwork’s harrowing descent from life as a top-flight footballer hit a new low as he was jailed for 15 months at Preston Crown Court.
Wallwork, who was stabbed during an altercation in a nightclub while on loan at Barnsley, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to selling on parts from stolen high-performance sports cars and was sentenced on Monday.
Police stumbled on the illegal vehicle-breaking operation of Wallwork, 34, while investigating a string of unconnected armed robberies across Lancashire.
It emerged he had sold parts of a Volkswagen Touran and BMW 318i on eBay and was observed driving a Mazda Furano. Together the cars were worth £43,000.
Controversy had been a constant companion during Wallwork’s playing career but this latest twist reflects how far he has fallen in the nine years since his days as a team-mate of Beckham, Ryan Giggs and Roy Keane.
Once banned from football for life after grabbing a referee by the neck while on loan at Royal Antwerp, Wallwork was touted as someone who could follow Beckham & Co from Old Trafford’s academy to the England side.
A player who operated in midfield or defence — he starred in United’s FA Youth Cup-winning side of 1995 — Wallwork made his debut for the first team in a 7-0 drubbing of Barnsley in October 1997, having impressed at that summer’s Under 20 World Cup in Malaysia.
His career at Old Trafford, though, failed to take off, despite him playing enough in the 2000-01 campaign to win a champions’ medal.
He left United in 2002 after 77 games and joined West Bromwich Albion. Ferguson said: ‘Ronnie was a marvellous player but he was unfortunate that he never had a set position.’
He struggled for fitness and it was only when linking up with Bryan Robson — first on loan at Bradford, then back at the Hawthorns — that he showed glimpses of that early potential.
Robson named him as one of the two key signings in the Albion team that performed ‘The Great Escape’ — the only time a side avoided relegation after being bottom of the Premier League at Christmas.
But his career spiralled out of control. In November 2006, he was stabbed seven times in the hand, back and stomach with a fish knife after an argument with a former boyfriend of his girlfriend.
The injuries he received were life-threatening and he never really recovered his playing career. He joined Sheffield Wednesday in 2008 and his last game came that April. It emerged in court he has since lost a huge amount of money after two businesses he set up failed.
Rachel Woods, defending Wallwork, said: ‘He had clearly succumbed to temptation in a stage of his life when his finances had taken a dramatic turn for the worse.’
Judge Simon Newell said: ‘You are a man who had employment, who had a stable upbringing and knew well how to behave in public and you let yourself down.’
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