A Moray sports coach who was facing up to 20 years in prison for obstructing a criminal investigation into an American youth football organisation has been spared jail.
Gavin MacPhee – originally from Rothes in Moray – was a senior figure at Global Premier Soccer (GPS), a player development academy based in Waltham, Massachusetts.
The 37-year-old deleted an email account after a federal investigation was launched into a colleague at the company in 2019.
The probe concerned allegations of poor working conditions and immigration paperwork irregularities for GPS coaches coming from abroad.
MacPhee, who still lives overseas with his wife and child, coached players at GPS and was also the firm’s marketing director and general manager of its Rhode Island franchise.
Probation and home detention
In May 2020 he appeared at a federal court in Boston where he pled guilty to one count of destruction, alteration, or falsification of records in a federal investigation.
The maximum sentence for the offence is 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.
His lawyer told the court that MacPhee had shown “complete remorse for his conduct” since his arrest.
At his sentencing hearing, MacPhee was placed on probation for one year, with the first four months to be served in home detention.
The court heard MacPhee began working for GPS in 2007 and, in his role as marketing director, he had “the ability to create and delete email accounts for employees”.
Federal investigation
A federal investigation into visas for foreign workers at GPS, which is still ongoing, involves the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Labor.
MacPhee was approached by a fellow employee, referred to as “Individual 1”, after his laptop was seized by investigators during a raid on the organisation’s headquarters in October 2019.
The court papers state: “MacPhee knew agents were interested in, and had seized, Individual 1’s computer.
“On or about December 3 2019, Individual 1 emailed MacPhee asking whether MacPhee could delete his email account. That same day, MacPhee responded that he could.
“On or about December 5 2019, during an in-person meeting with MacPhee, Individual 1 once again requested that MacPhee delete Individual 1’s email account.
“During that meeting, MacPhee permanently deleted Individual 1’s email account.”
‘Complete remorse’
MacPhee’s lawyer Ivan Mercado told the court: “Mr MacPhee was born in Elgin, Scotland. He initially came to the US to work as a soccer coach with Global Premier Soccer.
“Since December 2018, Mr MacPhee has resided in Marlborough, Massachusetts, with his wife, child and his wife’s parents.
“From the time of his arrest, the defendant has been very clear about his role in the offence and his complete remorse for his conduct.
“Given the nature of the offence, the defendant’s personal history and possible immigration consequences in this case, the defendant respectfully requests this court fashion a sentence sufficient but not greater than necessary.”
GPS, which was set up in 2001, offers coaching programmes to youth footballers and operates in 22 US states.
Statement from the US Department of Justice
A statement from the US Department of Justice said: “A Scottish man who was previously employed by Global Premier Soccer, a youth soccer organisation, was sentenced in federal court in Boston for obstructing justice.
“In December 2019, MacPhee used his access to the organisation’s information technology platform to delete a GPS email account belonging to a former employee with whom he had a close relationship.
“MacPhee deleted the account despite knowing about an ongoing federal investigation into GPS and the former employee, and the relevance of the email account to the investigation.”
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