Total Sea Magazine

An angling club that banned a match angler from its events for alleged cheating has announced it is standing by it decision.

Ford Sea Angling Club (FSAC) banned angler Dion Mcfayden from an open match last month, along with any further competition held by the club, after official stewards found fish in his kit prior to the match.

Macfayden has protested his innocence looking to clear his name since the incident, even going to the length of taking a polygraph test that concluded he was in fact innocent. However, FSAC has now released a statement putting forward its side of the story, citing the test taken as ‘seriously flawed’ and detailing the specifics of the incident that lead to Mcfayden being accused of cheating.

Here is the FSAC statement as it appeared on the World Sea Fishing website:

‘Just a quick thank you for waiting for our statement, as you can appreciate this is not something we were going to rush into, our competition has been running for 37 years, and we were never going to jeopardise that. 

Can we also ask that instead of posting loads of replies, and getting into lots of debate, that after you have read this, you make up your minds as to who is right or wrong, we can only present the facts. We will not be going to the press or anybody else, other competition organisers will have to do what they see fit.

The angler concerned has been named but we will not name him, he was also told by letter on 23 Jan that he is no longer welcome to fish in any future Ford Open, this will not change.

We did this within the rules of the Angling Trust, who adopted them from the NFSA as was, and are the rules that we have always used.

As promised, here is our statement of what happened at the Ford Open 22nd Jan 2012. (rules S12 & 13).

The issuing of this statement has been delayed whilst the club sought support from the Angling Trust (AT). 
We have now been informed by AT that this is a matter for the club to resolve between themselves and that as the open was not an AT-managed event then AT would not get involved as an adjudicator.
The angler referred to below has openly made his case in newspapers, magazines and online. We therefore believe it is now time to put across our account of the events that have taken place.



1. A bag search was carried out on a section of beach before the start of the Fords Open on 22 Jan 2012 at Weston Shore
Southampton after unproven allegations from our 2011 contest.

2. During the bag search at the 2012 event, 2 Flounder where found in the possession of that same angler.


3. The angler did not disclose to the stewards he was in possession of them. In our opinion this was the first attempt at deceiving the stewards. 
In our opinion any angler who had fish present with him at a match that he or she intended to keep would have
disclosed it to stewards and the anglers around him to avoid any misunderstandings or false accusations later.



4. When his cool box was first searched the angler lied as to the contents of a white plastic bag, the angler said,
when questioned that it contained Mackerel. (Second attempt at deception). 
The steward did not examine the bag. The angler was not keen to open the cool box fully. 



5. A second steward joined the first and was told of the white plastic bag by the first.
The first steward returned to the anglers fishing position and asked to search the cool box again and the white plastic bag was now missing. (3rd attempt at deception).



6. The second steward then noticed some white plastic buried beneath the anglers shelter. 
When retrieved it was found to contain the 2 WHOLE flounder (4th attempt at deception).



7. In attempt to provide a cover story the angler involved his son asking him to tell the stewards where they had fished the previous day and where he (the son) had caught the fish. His son answered Grays, this did not fit with the angler’s story and he corrected his son saying you mean Hythe. (5th attempt at deception).



8. All stewards involved have signed written statements giving their own personal account and all have
declared the fish were whole and not gutted.



9. In our opinion the lie detector test taken by the angler is seriously flawed.
Lie detectors tests are not admissible in UK courts as they are not deemed to be reliable.

During the search the angler kept trying to use his son to verify his story, this we were more than unhappy with, and the angler was asked repeatedly not to do this.
The lad was allowed to fish on, after the tails of the fish had been cut off.



Thank you


Ford Sea Angling Club.'