VETERAN FOOTBALL coach and former national player Geoffrey Maxwell, was arrested yesterday after Fraud Squad detectives charged him with fraudulent conversion of over $22-million.

"He was charged with 12 counts of fraudulent conversion and is booked to appear in the Half-Way Tree Resident Magistrate's Court tomorrow morning," Detective Inspector Fitz Bailey yesterday told The Gleaner.

He was granted bail in the sum of $10 million.

Inspector Bailey said the 51-year-old Maxwell was picked up at his Liguanea home yesterday morning, following investigations into alleged irregularities involving over $22 million at H.D. Hopwood Company Limited, where the accused was employed as the accounts manager.

Reports are that Mr. Maxwell had the responsibility of purchasing foreign exchange on behalf of the company. The police said between September 1997 and April 1999, he reportedly drew 12 cheques totalling over $22 million. He was supposed to have purchased US$600,000 for the company. When the money could not be accounted for, a report was made to the Fraud Squad. Invest-igations led to Mr. Maxwell's arrest yesterday.

Attorney-at-law Ian Wilkinson, who is representing Mr. Maxwell, said that his client was professing his innocence. "Up to now we have not seen any evidence that suggests he (Maxwell) is guilty," said Mr. Wilkinson.

A successful schoolboy soccer coach, Mr. Maxwell also coached Jamaica's national senior team in the mid-1980s. Under his watch Waterhouse Football Club won the Craven 'A' National Premier League title in the 1997/1998 season. He was rated as one of Jamaica's top defenders in the early 1970s.