from October 1958. An employee stole £2,500 from the business and Lawton decided to leave the pub trade after four years. He then took up a job selling insurance. He returned to football management with Kettering Town for the 1963–64 season as a caretaker following the resignation of Wally Akers, but the season ended with Kettering being relegated from the Southern League Premier Division. He was offered the job on a permanent basis, but turned it down so as to concentrate on his job as an insurance salesman. He lost his job in insurance in 1967, and then opened a sporting goods shop that bore his name after going into partnership with a friend, but was forced to close the business after just two months due to poor sales. After a period on unemployment benefits he found work at a betting company in Nottingham. He returned to Notts County to work as a coach and chief scout from 1968 to 1970. He was sacked after new manager Jimmy Sirrel decided to appoint his own backroom staff, and Lawton returned to unemployment. In May 1970, he wrote to Chelsea chairman Richard Attenborough asking for a loan of £250 and for possible employment; Attenborough lent him £100. He was interviewed by Eamonn Andrews on ITV's Today programme on his fall from England star to the unemployment line. After his financial troubles became public knowledge he was offered a lucrative job as director of his own subsidiary furniture company by a large furnishing company on Tottenham Court Road; however the company went into liquidation the following year. He continued to write cheques in the company's name, and in June 1972 pleaded Guilty to seven charges of obtaining goods and cash by deception. He was sentenced to three years probation, and ordered to pay £240 compensation and £100 in costs. In 1972 a testimonial match was organised by Everton on Lawton's behalf to help him pay off his debts of around £6,000. However his financial situation was still bleak, and on two occasions he narrowly avoided a prison sentence for failing to pay his rates after an Arsenal supporters club and later an anonymous former co-worker stepped in to pay the bill for him. In August 1974, he was again found Guilty of obtaining goods by deception after failing to repay a £10 debt to a publican, and was sentenced to 200 hours of