Former Wallabies captain Rocky Elsom says French authorities “knew where I was” and their failure to contact him in the lead-up to his trial robbed him of the chance to defend himself before he was sentenced to five years in prison.
The 41-year-old is facing arrest and extradition to France from Ireland, where he has been coaching at a school, after he was convicted in absentia on charges of misappropriating $1 million while he was majority owner and president of rugby club RC Narbonne a decade ago.
As he strives to avoid detention and clear his name, details have emerged of a long-running legal stand-off between Narbonne and former NSW Waratahs five-eighth Daniel Halangahu.
Halangahu launched unfair dismissal proceedings in 2016, claiming his contract was not honoured by the club administration which replaced Elsom that year, and was still waiting for the case to be heard eight years later “in what seems to be an obstruction of justice and due course”.
In a statement seen by this masthead, Halangahu also details how letters were sent by Narbonne to an address they knew he was no longer living at in 2016 when they decided not to honour his contract.
Elsom says that mirrors his own experience and believes comments by Patrick Tabet, the Paris-based lawyer representing the Narbonne’s liquidator, reinforce his argument that he has been the subject of “a clear perversion of justice”.
Tabet said there were several attempts to contact Elsom before he was found guilty of forgery and misuse of corporate assets at a criminal trial in Narbonne and sentenced him to five years jail, three years more than what was requested by prosecutors. Elsom was also ordered to pay €705,532.60 ($1.14 million) in compensation for “the very significant damage” suffered by the club.
“The General Directorate of the National Police in Montpellier tried to contact him on several occasions, notably in March 2019 … at his address in Australia, as well as at the address where he had registered in Australia at a company in August 2016,” Tabet said.
Rocky Elsom played 75 Tests for the Wallabies between 2005 and 2011.Credit: AP
“The president of the club, appointed to replace Rocky Elsom, sent him a registered letter with acknowledgment of receipt to which no response was given. Mr Rocky Elsom was then summoned to an interview with a view to his dismissal, since he had an employment contract with the club, which he did not attend.”
According to Tabet, Narbonne officials first filed a police report in September 2016 and an examining magistrate conducted an investigation for several years before referring Elsom to be tried. An arrest warrant was issued on June 27, 2023, he added.
Elsom said letters were sent to addresses where he hadn’t lived or worked or no longer lived and were sent years before the trial itself.
“He has admitted that I hadn’t been notified of this hearing,” he said. “And on the Sunday prior to the hearing I gave my location, my occupation and my upcoming public events.”
Former Waratahs playmaker Daniel Halangahu has had his own lengthy dispute with Narbonne.Credit: Getty Images
That information was contained in an interview with Elsom in Britain’s The Sunday Times that was published on October 6. It revealed he was living in Dublin, where he had won the European Cup with Leinster in 2009, and was coaching at the city’s Catholic University School.
Elsom told this masthead that gave French authorities ample opportunity to make him aware of his trial set down for later that week.
“They had my email address [and] they knew where I was – it was in the paper. It was an hour’s flight away,” he said. “That shows no attempt to [notify me] and you could infer that they preferred that I wasn’t there when they were giving the evidence and handed down the conviction.”
Still to see documents
Elsom, who was president of the club between 2013 and 2016, was still to sight court documents including the judgment.
But the towering retired back-rower has maintained his innocence over payments made while he had a 97 per cent stake in the club. He said it was up to him how club funds were spent, as the club’s majority owner and president, but he had done so responsibly, refuting suggestions that financial decisions made on his watch led to Narbonne’s relegation from the French second division and slide into administration in 2018.
That position appears to be supported by a statement by Halangahu, which outlines his own dispute with the club, saying it had increased spending by an additional €3.5 million ($5.6 million) in the 2016-17 season after rose by €2 million ($3.2 million) in 2015-16.
The club’s player of the year in 2013-14 and now an assistant coach at the Auckland Blues, Halangahu had signed a multi-year deal with Elsom, extending an agreement in which he was permitted to play for North Harbour in New Zealand’s National Provincial Championship before linking up with Narbonne for the rest of the season.
But after Elsom ceded control at Narbonne, the club “unlawfully disregarded my employment agreement,” Halangahu says in the statement.
According to Tabet, Elsom made a “completely unjustified” payment of €79,000 ($128,000) to a former coach and paid €7200 ($11,670) a month to an Australian general manager who “never came to Narbonne”.
The 75-Test Australian international has rejected those claims, saying former assistant coach and fellow ex-Wallaby Chris Whitaker was owed the money and Melbourne-based Englishman Chris Bayman, the general manager referred to, had not been paid at all because the club changed its mind about recruiting him.
Whitaker said last week he was paid what he was entitled to and left on good terms while Bayman, a former part-owner of the club, issued a statement saying he was “never paid a cent”.
Halangahu, Whitaker and Bayman have not been accused of any wrongdoing whatsoever.
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