Alick Kapikanya, who once tried to broker a deal to takeover Notts County and become a majority shareholder in Grimsby Town, has been sent back to his native Zambia after a 25-year battle against deportation.

Kapikanya was jailed in 2014 for six years for heading up a group which targeted elderly homeowners in Manchester and Lincolnshire from 2007.

His group stole their identities, seized ownership of their houses then repeatedly remortgaged them – walking away with £3.5m.

In 2019, it was reported one of the groups involved in bidding for Notts County, then up for sale by former owner Alan Hardy, was led by lawyer Colin Dodd, using adviser Kapikanya, who had changed his name by that point to Alex May.

Dodd told Mirror Sport at the time: “Alex May, when we were first introduced, disclosed everyone about his conviction. He has changed his name. He came clean and told us and everyone involved in this transaction is aware of that.

“He deserves a second chance, everyone makes mistakes in life and that is what we are doing.”

The consortium went as far as meeting with Nottingham City Council over plans to buy the Meadow Lane Club – a move which failed after widespread opposition from Magpies fans.

In April 2019, Dodd registered a company called Meadow Lane Project. Its address was listed as 7 The Ropewalk, Nottingham. This was changed in September of that year to Blundell Park Project (Grimsby Town play their home games at Blundell Park). He was the sole director of the company.

The move came to nothing, but that didn’t deter Kapikanya, who, a year later, turned his attention to fellow League Two club Grimsby Town.

In December it emerged that 2020 Kapikanya/May, had been present on more than one occasion at Grimsby Town home games and was, according to supporters’ organsisation Mariners Trust, in discussions about helping with a “potential development that would be of benefit to the club”.

Meanwhile, it appeared from documents filed at Companies House that Grimsby Town’s former majority shareholder and chairman John Fenty had a stake in a company called Town Centre Living alongside May. This company was set up on April 27 2020. May was also a director of the company, but this role was terminated on November 25.

Fenty was also the deputy leader of North-East Lincolnshire Council.

However, in a, Fenty said that he was no longer a business partner of May.

He said: “I wholly own the company called TCL which has yet to trade, and when it commences trading I will declare it on my declarations of interest accordingly.

“The original purpose of TCL was to trade some business in a joint-private venture with Alex May.

“That was put on hold, so I acquired his shareholding and he resigned as a director at the same time.

“Companies House records will show this.”

After much pressure from Mariners fans, any deal with Kapikanya/May was aborted.

In a ruling at the end of last month, Appeal Court judges Lord Justice Bean, Lord Justice Peter Jackson and Lord Justice Baker ordered Kapikanya be deported.

They wrote: “Kapikanya has been the subject of five decisions that he should be deported over a period of a quarter of a century.

“The system of appeals and orders for reconsideration has served him well in enabling him to remain in the UK throughout that period.” (The Business Desk)