A former player for AS Monaco has been sent to jail for three years for failing to pay taxes of more than half a million euros.

Franck Dumas owed €557,496 in taxes and penalties for the period January, 2011, until December 31, 2013, despite earning more than €1.3 million in 2012 alone, when he was manager of the football club in Caen, Normandy.

Dumas told the court that he had a problem with gambling, spending more than €100,000 a month at the height of his addiction, adding that he had not intended to defraud the taxman.

Dumas was part of the Monaco team that won the French championship in 1997. After leaving ASM, he played for Olympic de Marseille. When his tax offences became known he was fired as manager of Caen. Ten months of the three-year sentence was suspended.

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