THE coach of a Blackbird Leys-based boys football team has been told to pay back more than £80,000 after admitting more than 300 fraud offences.

Kevin Foley, of St Luke's Road, Cowley, defrauded business partner Said Nouar through their Fono Communications company.

Foley faked Mr Nouar's signature on hundreds of cheques, which he would then cash at a branch of NatWest Bank in Headington.

Foley was handed a suspended jail sentence at Oxford Crown Court last week and ordered to pay back more than £80,000 in compensation.

Mr Nouar has told of his anger at the sentence and suggested it was nothing more than a "slap on the wrist".

As part of the scam, Foley would cash cheques and create fake invoices for work and materials from about half a dozen companies.

He then logged fake receipts from the companies in the Fono Communications account book in a bid to cover his tracks.

Foley also applied for overdrafts for the company without Mr Nouar's knowledge, raking up debts of at least £19,000.

The fraud continued for six years between February 2000 and May 2006. Mr Nouar became suspicious and alerted police 18 months ago.

Foley was arrested following a police probe.

He subsequently admitted 18 counts of making false instruments, 20 counts of using false instruments and 11 counts of false accounting at Oxford Magistrates' Court in February this year.

At Oxford Crown Court last week, he received 51-week suspended sentences for each of the three types of charge, to run concurrently.

Another 257 fraud offences were taken into consideration and Foley was also ordered to pay £80,427.75 in compensation, as well as £266 court costs.

Foley declined to comment when approached at his home in St Luke's Road.

But Mr Nouar, who had co-owned the company with Foley for 18 years, said: "I feel really angry with him and I wouldn't like to meet him because I would go for him and end up in prison.

"The sentence is ridiculous. He has been slapped on the wrist."

Telephone engineer Foley has coached the under 12B team at the Oxford Blackbirds boys football club for at least three years.

In February, he qualified for a level-one coaching badge from the Football Association.

Neither Nigel Medlock, chairman of the Oxford Blackbirds, or club secretary Kevin Trendall were available to comment on Mr Foley's case.

But Paul Troth, a former Blackbirds coach who knows Foley through the club, said: "I'm a bit shocked. Kevin always seemed to be a genuine character.

"He never shouts at the kids - he always seems to have lots of patience."