A PREMIER League captain inadvertently acted as a “middle man” in a Christmas hamper con which saw players and staff lose thousands of pounds.

West Ham footballers, including defender James Tomkins, from Basildon, were allegedly conned by Stephen Ackerman, who is accused of selling hampers which were never delivered and taking £61,560 from his victims’ accounts.

Ackerman, who denies 18 fraud charges, is on trial at Snaresbrook Crown Court, which heard evidence from former West Ham captain Kevin Nolan yesterday.

The midfielder, 34, told the court he had been passed the details of a hamper salesman called “Mark Kingston” by a nightclub manager friend of his.

Mr Nolan paid £920 for two Harrods hampers and 25 bottles of champagne which he never received.

Other victims of the alleged scam include striker Andy Carroll and manager Sam Allardyce.

Ackerman is said to have appeared at West Ham’s training ground on December 12, 2014, using the Mark Kingston alias.

Mr Nolan told the court he was given the details of Mr Kingston by Scott Cummings, who runs the Club 195 bar in Epping.

He said: “He made me aware of him and I passed his details on to (player liaison officer) Tim De’Ath. It was a fella called Mark.

“Basically, it was just that Mark sold luxury hampers and he would like to come into the training ground - that’s something which is quite common in our place, round Christmas time we have a lot of people come in.”

Asked by prosecutor Richard Milne if he was a “sort of a middle man”, Nolan replied: “Yes”.

Nolan added that Mr De’Ath was responsible for handling the arrangements.

“Normally he’d do a vetting process and make sure everything was fine,” he said.

Ackerman, 48, of Loughton, is accused of using the bank details of his victims to take even more money from them after they paid for the non-existent hampers.

Mr Allardyce, who is currently in talks about becoming England’s next manager, previously told jurors he had lost £13,270 in the alleged scam.

He described the man who conned him as “extremely smart” and a “good salesman”.

The defence argue that Ackerman, who was picked out by Mr De’Ath, from Great Baddow, in an identity parade, was not the man who purported to be Mark Kingston.

The trial continues.