Leeds United owner Massimo Cellino fined €40k for tax evasion

Although it was believed that Massimo Cellino’s tumultuous year was firmly in the past, Leeds United’s Italian owner has once again found himself in trouble with the law.

Cellino has been ordered to pay €40k (£28.5k) by an Italian court for not paying taxes due on a Range Rover, according to Sardinian newspaper Unione Sarda.

The Italian businessman was accused of not paying €15k import duty on a Range Rover he’d imported from the United States, and therefore the National Court of Cagliari ordered him to pay the hefty fine.

However, the court acquitted him of customs offences because the amount of money involved was below the punishment for criminal liability.

Cellino’s Range Rover was imported to Sardinia from Miami in 2010 on a tourist visa, but was seized by customs two years later.

The Football League has yet to decide if further action against Cellino is necessary, especially since he already served a lengthy ban from running Leeds United after he was found guilty of tax evasion, and fined €600k, in Italy late last year.

Upon receiving the ban last December, Mr Cellino lost his appeal against against the Football League’s decision to disqualify him from owning the club in January, after he refused to disclose court documents. This followed with Cellino stepping down as the Championship club’s owner

However, he was eventually granted permission by the Football League to return to the club’s board in May after the ban had expired.

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