A lack of evidence, brought about by poor financial record keeping, meant detectives were unable to conclude that any criminal wrongdoing had taken place.

Since April, fraud squad officers had investigated "several serious deficiencies" in the retail operation after a suspected £100,000 in stock and cash went missing following Yorkshire's County Championship victory last year.

Sources reported a complete breakdown in systems, with a lack of barcodes and till receipts in the club shop and questions remaining over what goods were sold at charity functions and over the Internet.

Yesterday West Yorkshire Police said in a statement: "The fraud squad has now concluded the investigation into certain financial irregularities reported by Yorkshire County Cricket Club.

"Due to inadequacies in the internal accounting procedures operated by the club, there is insufficient evidence to conclude any criminal offence had been committed."

Last night YCCC chief executive Chris Hassell responded by saying: "We are grateful to West Yorkshire Police for their assistance in this matter which has now confirmed the results of our investigations and which has also enabled us to identify a proportion of the deficiencies.

"The question of controls was addressed some time ago and further changes have been made following advice from our auditors and this has included a number of security measures."

The police investigation came after honourary treasurer Peter Townend said Yorkshire must slash its cricket expenditure by £250,000 this year.

He told members at the annual general meeting in February that it was ironic that winning the Championship had coincided with a substantial accounting loss.

Yorkshire Post

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