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Former rugby league star Brent Todd today admitted four fraud charges, three days before he was due to face a depositions hearing.
Todd, who played 28 tests for the Kiwis between 1985 and 1993, admitted the charges when he appeared in Auckland District Court today.
Todd, along with several other high profile sportsmen, was due to appear in court on Monday for a four-week depositions hearing.
He would now not have to appear on Monday but would be sentenced next month, the Serious Fraud Office said.
Another accused, Stanley Malik Champalal Wijeyaratne, also pleaded guilty to four charges and would appear with Todd for sentencing next month, SFO assistant director Gus Andree Wiltens said.
A deposition hearing for former All Black Doug Rollerson, former Kiwi Hugh McGahan, Touch New Zealand former chief executive, Dick Arnott, and former employee, Geoffrey Alan Thompson, is expected to still go ahead on Monday.
The charges relate to hundreds of thousands of dollars of gaming machine money intended for amateur rugby.
Late last year Todd said he would fight the charges after flying back from his Queensland home to appear in court.
Outside the court he vehemently denied the charges.
"In any business dealing I have had over the last five years I have always been advised and it has always been approved by a board," he told reporters.
"If I have done the wrong thing in the last five years I will front up and cop it on the chin - and my chin's big enough to cop it - but until I have been proved to have done something wrong I will fight the charges," he said.
Todd was declared bankrupt in February last year and in September last year admitted procuring cocaine and was fined $500.
- NZPA
