A member of The Charity Commission appeared on BBC Breakfast to discuss Captain Sir Tom Moore’s daughter’s financial beneficiation from a charity in his name
The family of hero fundraiser Captain Sir Tom Moore have been slammed by a watchdog for pocketing huge sums of money in his name.
Sir Tom’s daughter and her husband gained “significant” financial benefit from links to a charity set up during the pandemic, a report has said. The Charity Commission said a probe of The Captain Tom Foundation had uncovered “repeatedly failures of governance and integrity”.
The World War II hero raised nearly £39 million during the Covid-19 crisis by walking 100 lengths of his garden ahead of his 100th birthday. His fundraising efforts captured the nation’s hearts and led to a record-breaking flood of donations from well-wishers.
He was given a BBC Sports Personality of the Year award and performed in a chart-topping music single. Sir Tom was knighted by the Queen in July 2020 and died, aged 100, in February 2021 after contracting Covid-19.
The Captain Tom Foundation was set up by his daughter Hannah Ingram-Moore, 53, and her husband, Colin, 66, in his honour. However, it became the subject of several allegations, leading to investigations by the Charity Commission and Fundraising Regulator.
The Charity Commission first opened a compliance case in March 2021 and began reviewing the organisation’s setup. It opened a statutory inquiry – usually reserved for only the most serious cases – in June 2022.
However, now the watchdog’s report has been published – and is damning in its criticism of Hannah Ingram-Moore and her husband Colin.
The report concluded there had been repeated instances of misconduct by the pair, who have already been banned from being charity trustees. The report said the couple’s “misconduct and/or mismanagement” was a “repeated pattern of behaviour”.
Speaking on BBC Breakfast on Thursday morning, David Holdsworth from the Charity Commission spoke to about the report and insisted that the public ‘will be rightly feeling misled’ by Captain Tom’s family.
“I think the public will be rightly feeling misled. I think everyone got behind Captain Tom and I think we all remember during the pandemic the smile he brought to all our faces. It reminded us of what service to others can actually achieve” David shared.
Discussing the misconduct, David continued: “What we have found is a pattern of behaviour and there was a consistent blurring of the lines between the private benefits of the family and the interest of the charity – and they simply weren’t managed.”
David went on to reveal the exact amount Captain Tom’s family profited as he shared: “There was a £1.4m book deal. Our view was because of the marketing around it – because of Captain Tom’s own words in the prologue, we thought it would benefit the foundation. The public would rightly of expected some of that money to go to the charity. However, it didn’t.
“There was also an £18,000 payment to Mrs Ingram-Moore for attendance at an award ceremony. The charity only got a £2,000 donation. The trustees were unaware of that deal and agreement. If they had of been, they could have perhaps negotiated a better deal,” the BBC Breakfast guest concluded.
It comes after it was revealed that sales of Captain Tom’s autobiography ‘Tomorrow Will Be A Good Day’ did not benefit The Captain Tom Foundation. In the book’s foreword, he wrote of being given “the chance to raise even more money for the charitable foundation now established in my name.”
Instead, an advance of £1.4m for the three-book deal was paid to Club Nook – a company of which the Ingram-Moores are directors. Literary agent Bev James, who represented Captain Tom, said the couple were “very clear” they did not want the money to go to charity. The Commission said that “to date, the charity has not received any money from the first publishing agreement”.
The Commission has now called on the couple to make a “suitable donation” to “honour the commitment that Captain Tom stated in the foreword” to the book.
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