A CLUB at the centre of a fraud probe has vowed to sue its accusers after police found no evidence of criminal activity.

Police had spent a year investigating allegations that £250,000 had been embezzled by committee members of Blakeborough Social and Sports Club, Brighouse.

But Calderdale CID failed to find evidence to support the accusations levelled at the Bradford Road club by a breakaway committee at Albion Bowling Club, Halifax Road.

Blakeborough, which owns Albion Bowling Club (ABC), has been embroiled in a two-year battle to sell ABC to raise cash for the financially troubled Bradford Road club.

A county court hearing later this year will determine ABC’s fate.

Three members of the breakaway Albion faction made the allegations of fraud to Calderdale police in December, 2009. Ten boxes of documents, including ledgers and bank statements, were seized by police during the investigation.

While the police report concluded Blakeborough was ‘fighting a losing battle to keep the club solvent’, no evidence of wrongdoing was found.

Blakeborough committee member Andy Taylor said the accusations had damaged the club’s reputation.

Some 150 of the club’s 750 paid members had been lost, Mr Taylor said.

Now the club plans to take legal action against the people who made the allegations.

Mr Taylor said: “We’re very relieved as a committee.

“We asked them to present the evidence at the start rather than go to the police.

“We will certainly be taking legal action for damages.

“We gave our time up for nothing even when all this was flying around.

“I don’t think it will be the end of the club... We’re struggling like any other club. If we’ve assets, we have to use them.”

Andy Speechley, one of the ABC breakaway committee members who made the allegations, expressed disappointment at the police findings.

Mr Speechley also dismissed the likelihood of legal action succeeding against him and the other breakaway members as a ‘joke’.

He said: “We’re actually in the process of appealing against the decision. We don’t think the investigation was satisfactory.”