Here’s the sales pitch: hockey jerseys worn in action by star players with the Ontario Hockey League’s London Knights during their 2013-14 season and in the championship series.
The allegations: They’re fake.
New charges of jersey fraud are being levelled against the Knights by three hockey memorabilia collectors interviewed as part of an ongoing Star investigation into game-worn jersey authenticity.
The Knights memorabilia they purchased never saw actual ice time, according to the collectors and public records.
One of the men — an employee of the club’s retail operation five years ago — said staff would routinely rub puck marks on new shirts to create a game worn appearance.
“(My manager at the time) explained to me how he threw hockey pucks to replicate marks on the jersey,” said Tyler French, an avid jersey collector who worked in the club’s store in the 2012-13 season. “I was in the store bending over the heat press making jersey orders that came in and he came out of the back office and said he’s hanging up jerseys and throwing pucks at them.”
Trevor Whiffen, legal counsel for the Knights, did not respond to repeated interview requests. The club’s general manager, Rob Simpson, and co-owner, Mark Hunter, also did not respond to requests for comments.
The Star first reported on allegations of the fraud last August. London jersey collector Scott Galbraith alleged in a civil suit obtained by the Star that he paid $4,000 for a jersey worn on the ice by Toronto Maple Leafs first-round 2015 draft pick Mitch Marner, winner of the OHL’s most outstanding player award last year.
Galbraith’s suit alleged the club “knowingly” passed off a “false letter of authenticity” as authentic and fabricated a “fake game-worn jersey.”
The club denied the allegations in response to questions from the Star at the time.
The case was settled out of court shortly after. The details are not public.
“You hope it’s just carelessness,” said Galbraith’s London lawyer Gene Chiarello, who played for the Knights in the 1990s. “But if there’s evidence that a brand-new jersey has been marked up to look game-worn with your favourite player’s name slapped on the back, and it’s accompanied by a letter of authenticity, then that’s fraud.”
All three of the new complainants provided the Star with copies of the letters of authentication.
They say they became skeptical after reading about Galbraith’s story and took a closer look.
All three jerseys, according to the letters bearing the Knights logo, were worn during the 2013-14 season and during the Memorial Cup that season.
Jamie Payne paid $450 in an online auction for a black jersey allegedly worn by team captain Chris Tierney in the 2013-14 season.
“You’re paying extra because you think it’s worn in the Memorial Cup,” said the 54-year-old Londoner and Knights season-ticket holder. “That’s the reason you buy.”
But it is impossible that the shirt was worn during the Memorial Cup that year.
The Knights did not wear their black jerseys in the championship tournament that year, according to a review of the tournament photos.
When Payne first got the shirt, he had suspicions based on its pristine condition.
“It smelled brand new. There were hardly any marks on it. It raised an eyebrow. I threw it in my closet and never thought anything of it. When I saw the other case come up about the Marner jersey, I thought, ‘huh.’ ”
Zachary Lapp, an OHL fan in Hemlock, Mich., received a white Knights jersey bearing the name of player Justin Sefton from his wife, who bought it in an online auction in 2015.
The letter of authentication says Sefton “wore the accompanying jersey during the 2013-2014 season and also at the 2014 MasterCard Memorial Cup in London, ON.”
The problem: Sefton didn’t play a single game for London in 2013-2014. He played the entire season for the Saginaw Spirit.
“I looked at it when I got home one time and we hung it with the rest of the jerseys. I got thinking about it and thought, I don’t think that’s a Memorial Cup jersey because there’s no crest on it. I just kind of let it go and kept it in the collection.”
After seeing the Star story about the Marner jersey, he took a closer look.
Something didn’t make sense: it was in pristine condition.
“(Sefton) was a fighter. You’ve got an aggressive defenceman blocking shots, clutching and grabbing. These things are usually tattered and beat up. He’s not going to have a jersey that looks untouched. It didn’t make sense.”
Sefton had 92 penalty minutes in 68 games in the 2013-2014 season.
A simple check of Sefton’s career path confirmed Lapp’s suspicions.
“I thought, ‘I’ll be damned,’ I never second-guessed it because London is a big organization,” said Lapp. “You can definitely swindle someone out of something with a fake jersey. It’s almost as if London is trying to swindle people out of money . . . . They’re doing this carelessly. They don’t care what they’re peddling out to the fans or collectors. It’s almost insulting.”
Former Knights retail store employee French, also an avid hockey jersey collector, bought his jersey for about $900 through a Knights’ online auction.
It was, according to an accompanying letter of authenticity, worn by star player Olli Maatta during the 2013-14 season and in the 2014 Memorial Cup.
But Maatta played that entire season with the Pittsburgh Penguins of the NHL. Records show he did not play one game for London, nor did he play in the 2014 Memorial Cup.
French said the club would not have known it was him behind the bid.
“I was just a number. I got to the store to pick it up and they say, ‘Oh, it’s you.’ Their body language was like they were shocked.”
When he did some research, he concluded the jersey was among the fraudulent shirts he says were being produced by the Knights.
“It’s fake,” he said. “Maatta wasn’t even on the team that year. I’m not a stupid guy.”
He says he was never asked back to work with the club.
“I live in London. There’s only so much entertainment here. I love going to Friday night hockey. I didn’t want to raise any situation because I feel they’re powerful enough people that they could come after me and not allow me to watch hockey anymore. It’s a big part of our life.”
Marc Juteau, president of Classic Auctions in Montreal which authenticates sports memorabilia, said he has not encountered similar issues with Canadian Hockey League jerseys.
“It is probably an isolated problem but it should be taken seriously. People pay a lot of money for these jerseys. In order to avoid future situations like that, this thing needs to be cleaned up because it’s totally unacceptable.”
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