A non-league manager has been suspended from football for three years after being found to have bet against his own teams.

Nick Bunyard, the Frome Town manager, admitted to placing 45 bets against Frome and his former club Paulton Rovers and has been banned from all football and football related activity until 1 July 2019 and fined £3,000 after breaching the FA’s betting rules.

“For the duration of the suspension, which is effective from 19 April 2016, he must not attend any ground at which Frome are playing on a matchday at any level,” said the FA in a statement. “An Independent Regulatory Commission heard how Mr Bunyard admitted misconduct in relation to 97 breaches of FA Rule E8(1)(a)(i) relating to betting activity between 13 September 2014 to 9 April 2016. Of the 97 bets, 45 were placed against Paulton Rovers FC and Frome Town FC whilst Mr Bunyard was manager.

Bunyard denied he ever wanted his teams to lose. “I’ve accepted that I have on occasions bet on us to lose and that it was done via insider knowledge, but that’s not to say I wanted us to lose,” he told the Western Daily Press. “I fully cooperated with the FA from the start and said that 99% of footballers bet on the game and do so in far bigger volumes than I do. I could have tried to hide things and been dishonest but chose not to.”

The FA added: “The Commission found not proven an FA charge that he had allegedly breached a post-charge Interim Suspension Order which was imposed on him on 24 June 2016.”