The English Bridge Union posted the followings:
An EBU Disciplinary Committee recently considered the following charges against Stephen Swiatek, member of Oxfordshire(BBO Name wisekat) & Ngairy Palin, member of Berks & Bucks (BBO Name Ngairy).
- That when they played in online games on the Bridgebase Online “BBO” platform, they exchanged information about their hands illegally with their partner and used this information to inform their bidding and play.
- That they took advantage of this information to make calls and plays which they were unlikely to have made had they not known the layout of the hands, to the benefit of their bridge scores in those sessions.
The defendants admitted the charges. The Disciplinary Committee found the charges proved to their comfortable satisfaction, and that the defendants’ conduct constituted an offence under paragraph 3.2(iv) of the EBU Disciplinary Rules, being unfair or dishonest play. The sanction initially imposed by the Disciplinary Committee was appealed and the Appeal Committee, at a hearing on 10th March, imposed a sanction of suspension of EBU membership for a period of 24 months for Mr Swiatek and 21 months for Ms Palin.
March 16, 2021
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source: EBU