Snooker player Stephen Lee was banned for 12 years after being found guilty of seven charges of match-fixing, on this day in 2013.

The then 38-year-old was found guilty of the charges by an independent tribunal and the sanction was imposed on Lee a week later.

The former world number five was found guilty of match-fixing charges relating to seven matches in 2008 and 2009.

As well as the 12-year ban, tribunal chairman Adam Lewis QC also ordered that Lee pay costs of £40,000.

A statement from the World Professional Billards and Snooker Association confirmed the suspension was calculated from 12 October 2012, when the interim suspension was imposed, and the ban would continue until 12 October 2024.

WPBSA chairman Jason Ferguson said: “We take no pride in having to deal with such serious issues. However this demonstrates our commitment to ensuring that snooker is free from corruption.

“It is an important part of our anti-corruption approach that players found to be involved in fixing matches or any aspect of a match are severely dealt with.

“We work closely with partners globally and the message we are sending is that if you get involved in match-fixing you will be found out and removed from the sport.”

The WPBSA had been seeking a lifetime ban but the organisation’s head of disciplinary Nigel Mawer insisted the 12-year suspension was effectively the same thing.

Mawer told PA: “We did say we were seeking a life ban because if it was seven matches that had been fixed including during the World Championship.

“But in effect it is a life ban because I think it is highly unlikely that Stephen Lee will be able to come back to the sport at this level.

“We don’t take great pleasure out of that – this is a case of a fantastic snooker player who has thrown it all away through making the wrong decisions.

“It is only human to have a degree of sympathy for him and it is going to be very difficult for him but we have to send a very strong message that match-fixing is not going to be tolerated.

“To my knowledge this is the longest ban ever handed down and there are £40,000 costs to pay too if he ever wants to come back.”

Danish Kaneria was banned from English and Welsh domestic cricket for life and described as “a grave danger” to the sport on this day in 2012 following his involvement in a spot-fixing plot.

The Pakistani was found guilty by the England and Wales Cricket Board of “cajoling and pressurising” former Essex team-mate Mervyn Westfield into accepting cash in return for trying to concede a set number of runs in an over.

“We regard Danish Kaneria as a grave danger to the game of cricket and we must take every appropriate step to protect our game from his corrupt activities,” the ECB’s disciplinary panel said in a statement.

The panel found Kaneria guilty on two charges – of knowingly inducing and encouraging Westfield not to perform on his own merits in the Pro 40 match against Durham in 2009, and of bringing the game into disrepute.

It concluded that Kaneria acted as a recruiter for Anu Bhatt, who was described in the ECB’s summary as “an Indian businessman who, prior to November 2007, had come to the notice of the Anti-Corruption and Security Unit of the International Cricket Council as allegedly being heavily involved in illegal betting”.

Kaneria, who played 61 Tests and remains Pakistan’s fourth-highest Test wicket-taker, put pressure on Westfield “well knowing that he was young and vulnerable” to concede a minimum of 12 runs in his first over at Chester-le-Street in return for £6,000, according to the panel, which also described the evidence given by Kaneria during the four-day hearing in London as “plainly lies”.

He made subsequent appeals against his lifetime ban, but all were dismissed.