THE former chief executive of JJB Sports has been convicted of accepting more than £1 million in backhanders from suppliers.

Christopher Ronnie, who is originally from Glasgow, showed no emotion in the dock as he was found guilty of fraud over three six-figure cash payments from companies doing business with the sportswear giant in 2007 and 2008.

Southwark Crown Court in London heard that the payments, some of which were used to buy property in Florida, were not disclosed to the company board by Ronnie, of Wilmslow, Cheshire, who then was £11 million in debt to Icelandic banks.

The 52-year-old businessman, who did not give evidence in his own defence, was convicted of three counts of fraud, and two of furnishing false information after a trial lasting more than eight weeks.

It took the jury nearly 35 hours of deliberations to deliver its unanimous guilty verdicts against him.

Ronnie was chief executive of JJB Sports between August 2007 and March 2009.

His co-defendants, business partners David Ball and David Barrington - who both worked for two firms supplying stock to JJB Sports - were convicted today of helping to cover his tracks.

The case, which the Serious Fraud Office had been working on since 2009, centred on three large loans of several hundred thousand pounds each which Ronnie received in 2008.

Ronnie, Ball and Barrington will be sentenced on December 12.