LONDON - A Malaysian betting ring may have been behind plots to murder jockey Frankie Dettori and racing driver David Coulthard in plane crashes, the Sunday People reported yesterday.
The weekly newspaper said detectives were investigating an underworld tip-off that gangsters caused the plane crashes, just a week apart, which almost killed the sports stars.
Their deaths allegedly would have made millions of pounds for shadowy spread-betting gambling syndicates.
Dettori, a former British champion jockey, last month suffered a fractured ankle and bruising in a plane crash in Newmarket, England, which claimed the life of pilot Peter Mackey.
The crash forced him to pull out of the Derby, which attracts some of the heaviest gambling of any race of the year.
Formula One driver Coulthard was injured in May when his plane crashed as he headed for southern France two days before the Spanish Grand Prix.
Both Coulthard's pilots died in the crash.
"It seems astonishing but our informants insist this has happened," a senior police source told the newspaper.
"We are investigating. We know these gangs have killed people in Asia to pull off gambling coups."
The paper said plane engines were tampered with in both cases.
Coulthard's plane crashed after the engines failed and the pilots attempted a crash landing.
Investigators later found that the plane's regular engines were being serviced and it was operating with substitutes from American company Honeywell.
A previous loan engine had been installed and tested, but was later removed and replaced with a third.
Mechanical failure was also suspected behind Dettori's ill-fated flight.
The suspicious crashes have increased police concerns about Malaysian betting syndicates fixing sports events, after four men were found guilty of influencing the abandonment of a Charlton and Liverpool match in 1998.
Sunday People said a Far East betting syndicate was also involved in the World Cup rugby final between New Zealand and South Africa in 1995.
They said a private detective had found the syndicate paid a waitress called Sophie - referred to by former All Blacks coach Laurie Mains as "Susie" - to spike the All Blacks' drinks.
New Zealand lost the final in extra-time.
Betting syndicates fingered in sports tragedies
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