Edinburgh parents heartbreak as £25k money vanishes for "trip of a lifetime"

Police say they're investigating a report of Fraud, as parents at an Edinburgh under 16s football club tell us they're £25 thousand out of pocket, for a tournament in Spain which was never booked.

Families at Hutchison Vale Football Club say their "excitement turned to heartbreak", accusing the team's coach of failing to return the funds.

Parents said they'd spent a year fundraising for what would have been the "trip of a lifetime", to the Copa Daurada tournament in Salut.

"I don’t think it was a genuine mistake, I think it's been pre-meditated since the beginning”

The real disappointment hit only the day before they were due to travel, when they found they'd no flights, owing - they claim - to the club's coach not having paid for anything .

One of the parent told us how things unfolded:

“Obviously the parents, the parents are still looking for their money back if possible somehow, but there’s a police investigation now so it’ll be whatever the police can do, it’s up to them just now.”

“If it’s a genuine mistake then the money would be there, the money would be transferred back, everybody would have booked another trip by now, he would have still been coach and he wouldn't have been suspended. I don’t think it was a genuine mistake, I think it's been pre-meditated since the beginning.”

“It kind of gets to the point where everyone’s like, there’s something wrong here now. So we’ve done a bit of our own digging, got in touch with the travel company and basically they say all that was paid was a €195 deposit and that was it, there was never any further money paid to them.”

“For somebody you’ve known for so long, you just don't expect them to do that to anybody, especially if they’re part of your football team where your kids have been playing for a long time. Pretty disappointing.”

“It was pretty stressful for most people, especially with young kids, and a lot of people can’t afford it, and probably a lot of people would’ve got another holiday out of that - so yeah, pretty stressful.”

The travel company Ballfreunde told us they're also out of pocket more than €12 thousand, having paid for the trip up front:

"Indeed, the accused coach officially booked the tournament as well as a shuttle from the airport to the Cambrils Park resort through our booking system and also affected the first payment (€195 which is the equivalent of the Registration fee). He several times assured us that he had made the further payments but these never reached us. We will shortly be taking legal action through our lawyer, as the accused coach owes us €12,987. Of course, we had to pay for the team's accommodation and the shuttle etc. as he hadn't cancelled but simply didn't turn up. We are also currently in contact with the parents, who also are trying to solve this problem and get their money back."

The accused coach gave us a detailed response to our request for comment, but asked us not to include any of it in our report - though he did deny any wrongdoing.

Hutchison Vale FC say an alleged fraud was reported to the club leadership, who immediately informed Police Scotland - who’ve told us enquiries are ongoing.