Charity Matters Apr/May 2019 ISSUE 83

SUPPORT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS A number of charities have joined the boycott of London’s Dorchester Hotel, by cancelling events due to be held there…

FIRST CONVICTION FOR FGM A Ugandan mother from Walthamstow has been handed an 11 year jail sentence for an act of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) on …

CANCER CON A fraudster conned a small cancer charity into employing her as a £40,000 a year marketing and events manager by claiming that she had two …

DESPERATE CHEATS Felicity Huffman, 56, a former actress in the Desperate Housewives series, has admitted that an £11,000 bribe disguised as a …

SLAVERY AND THE NATIONAL TRUST The National Trust is researching the links to slavery that an estimated one in six of its properties has, to give visitors an …

LIBEL THREAT The cancer charity Melanoma UK has been threatened with legal action by the Sunbed Association for suggesting that regular use of sunbeds …

POSH GEAR IN TUNBRIDGE WELLS A Mind charity shop in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, has been given an estimated £50,000 worth of designer clothes to sell by an…

Charity Matters Feb/Mar 2019 ISSUE 82

GREED ALL ROUND More bad publicity is dogging the gambling industry after a Daily Mail reporter infiltrated the offices of Bet365 in the tax haven of Gibraltar and …

HOW MUCH TO THE CAUSE? Charities may soon be obliged to divulge how much of the money from donors is being spent on the cause and how much is going on …

KNIFE CRIME A father who’s son’s death from being stabbed while he was trying to break up a fight inspired him to set up a charity to fight knife crime was awarded …

LIVES OF MIGRANTS SAVED BY CHARITY Most migrants who try to reach Britain illegally by boat and get into difficulties at sea are then rescued by the volunteers …

SICK TEENS Britain has the highest rate of obesity, and rates of illnesses, amongst teenagers in Europe, two charities have reported. The Nuffield Trust and the …

COMICAL A row has erupted over a picture of TV journalist Stacey Dooley cuddling a child in Uganda that was posted by Dooley on social media whilst she was …

BREAST CANCER SCREENING NO-SHOWS More women aged 50 – 70 are failing to turn up for breast cancer checks, say charity Breast Cancer Now, which points …

CARE HOME QUALITY WORSENS The Independent Age charity has revealed that in a third of local authority areas the quality of care homes is worsening, with 40% …

JUST SEMANTICS? Charity Matters has been advised by the mental health charity MIND (Stockport) that our use of the phrase “committed suicide” in our recent …

Charity Matters Oct/Nov 2018 ISSUE 81

MOTABILITY LATEST Mike Betts, CEO of Motability Operations a firm supplying disabled people with vehicles in exchange for their taxpayer funded benefits has …

MISJUDGMENT Criticism of Diabetes UK has followed their decision to accept £500,000 in sponsorship from Britvic, makers of the fizzy drinks Tango and Pepsi …

BLOOD MONEY? Gambling addiction charities have attacked the £265 million salary that founder and joint CEO of online gambling firm bet365 Denise Coates CBE…

BOOKMAKER ACCEPTED STOLEN CHARITY MONEY Bookmaker Paddy Power Betfair (PPB) have been fined £2.2 million by the Gambling Commission for failing …

CHARITIES TO LOSE OVER NEW PROBATE FEES The greatly increased fees charged by the government for probate next year could adversely affect the amount …

THEFT INVESTIGATION A travel firm in Kent is being investigated by police for theft from a charity after they failed to provide flight tickets to New Zealand that had …

NEW SUICIDE CHARITY Two mothers whose 16 year old son and daughter from the same school committed suicide have set up a charity to help make sure their …

NO JOKE A comedian has pulled out of a student charity fundraiser at the University of London in January where he had agreed to give his time free, after he was asked …

Charity Matters Aug/Sep 2018 ISSUE 80

TERRORIST ATROCITY TRIGGERS NEW CHARITY The grieving Australian parents of a 21 year old woman who was one of seven killed at London Bridge and Borough …

MOTABILITY EXPOSED The Daily Mail has been praised for exposing the greed of those running the Motability charitable scheme whereby vehicles are supplied to …

STEALING FROM CHARITIES
o A six year jail sentence has been handed down to Nadia Ali, finance officer for …
o A one year jail sentence has been handed down to Akbar Siddiqi, a fundraising …

MALE SUICIDE DROPS The number of male suicides last year dropped to 4,382, the lowest since data was first recorded in 1981, against a total suicide toll of 5,821 …

BIG GAIN FOR OXFAM The death of Richard Cousins, 58, the multi-millionaire CEO of catering firm Compass has resulted in a £41 million payment of most of his fortune to …

MOBILE PHONE SCAM? Charity Citizens Advice are advising all those with mobile phones and a “bundled” contract for handset, data and call charges to check whether …

ABANDONED AT CHARITY SHOP The RSPCA are looking for a person who cruelly abandoned an eight-week old border terrier cross puppy in a hand bag, with its paws …

Charity Matters Jun/Jul 2018 ISSUE 79

HEARTLESS FRAUD Charitable donations and public money has been sponged up by fraudsters claiming to have been involved in the Greenfell Tower tragedy, to get …

NO ONE TO TURN TO A report for Save The Children into the abuse of children by charity aid workers, No One To Turn To, contains horrific accounts of instances …

NICE WORK Fundraising companies are doing rather well out of charities that employ them and their teams of “chuggers” (charity muggers). A report last month in the …

DEATH OF RSPCA SAVIOUR An RSPCA inspector died trying to save 40 gannets that had been trapped on a rock at Porthchapel Beach, Cornwall during Storm Imogen in …

BIAS COULD LOSE CHARITY STATUS The Legatum Institute, a charity think tank, has been warned by the Charity Commission that it could lose its charitable status if …

KNOW YOUR KNOTWEED Conservation charity Plantlife has issued some information about Japanese knotweed following research which showed that less than 20% of …

NO SKINNY-DIPPING The National Trust has issued warnings based on Health and Safety to members of the public seen swimming naked in its lakes at Woodchester …

Charity Matters Apr/May 2018 ISSUE 78

DAZED AND CONFUSED Some small charities in the sector admit that they are unsure whether or not they are compliant with the new GDPR standards (General Data …

RNIB INVESTIGATED Investigations are taking place at the Royal National Institute for Blind People’s (RNIB) Pears Centre for Specialist Learning near Coventry following a …

CHARITIES TOO? The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is set to get new powers to hold directors of nuisance call companies personally liable for payment of …

BLIND STUPIDITY? Two in three of the UK’s health trusts are ignoring new orders to offer cataract surgery to all those sufferers whose doctors believe they would benefit…

FILLING THEIR BOOTS FROM CHARITY A charitable scheme to supply cars for disabled people in exchange for their state disability allowance has been slammed …

KILL A BADGER FOR £50 A new government scheme has been launched to kill badgers, a protected species, in areas of bovine tuberculosis (bTB) outbreaks, even …

CHARITY OFFICER JAILED A jail sentence of one year has been given to a charity finance officer who stole more than £53,000. Gemma Mason, 36, bought more than …

DO AS WE SAY, NOT DO The Church of England has been accused of hypocrisy for attacking greedy City bonus cultures after it has emerged that their charity …

Charity Matters Feb/Mar 2018 ISSUE 77

DAMAGE The charity sector has suffered considerable and probably permanent damage due to the recent slew of sleaze allegations aimed at a few large …

WILL THEY/WONT THEY? In the wake of the collapse of the President’s Club after a stag event at which female hostesses were groped and propositioned and sex …

PROBE AT ROYAL ALBERT HALL The management of the Royal Albert Hall is to face an overdue and judge-led inquiry later this year into why the charity allows its …

BETTING FRENZY ENDANGERING CHILDREN The number of advertisements for betting firms during sports matches, and the number of sports pundits extolling … 

BETTING FUNDED BY FRAUD The chief executive of an animal shelter who plundered donations of £640,000 in nine years to fund his online gambling habit …

IS THAT FAUX FUR OR FOX FUR YOU ARE WEARING? Tests carried out by the Humane Society UK have revealed that real animal for is being misleadingly passed …

THERESA GETS IT RIGHT, FOR MOST The League Against Cruel Sports has welcomed the U-turn by Theresa May over her promise of an MP’s vote on …

Charity Matters Dec 2017/Jan 2018 ISSUE 76

GROOMING CHILDREN Social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are making it easier for perverts to target children and groom them for … 

PRISON IF YOU GET IT WRONG A sad case of a vulnerable woman in her 50’s and in bad health being jailed for non-payment of council tax of £700, including fines …

DANGEROUS AND MISGUIDED Charities working with domestic abuse have criticised a campaign by Essex police which offered extra support to those over 55 who were …

VILE TRADE LEGAL IN SOUTH AFRICA Around 800 lions in South Africa have been taken from their mothers at a few days old, while still blind, and reared to be petted …

STEAL £1.3 MILLION – PAY BACK £51,745 A trusted boss of Welsh homeless charity who stole £1.3 million to fund a lavish lifestyle has been jailed for five years and …

UNSUSTAINABLE EATING Research by the food charity Sustain has revealed that some of the UK’s largest contract caterers are serving fish deemed by the Marine …

Charity Matters Oct/Nov 2017 ISSUE 75

EXPOSING SLAVERY In conjunction with the government’s anti-slavery units the London Evening Standard has issued readers with key signs for the public to look…

MORE PRISON FOR ANIMAL CRUELTY OFFENCES The RSPCA has welcomed the government announcement that the current maximum term of six months in prison …

CARE CRISIS Charities concerned with the care of the elderly have warned of the frightening extent of the crisis in the care home sector. A report by the Care Quality …

ONLINE PORNOGRAPHY BLAMED Charities have blamed the easy availability of online pornography for the revelations that child on child sexual assaults have …

MORE ON KID’S COMPANY “Unethical journalists” who conspired against her and “politicians who don’t know what is happening on the street” have been blamed for …

BAG BAN Charity collection bags posted through householder’s letterboxes are now banned, if the householder displays a sign advising charities the bags are unwanted…

A CHARITABLE CHANCELLOR? Chancellor Philip Hammond could face questions over his moral integrity after he shelved a review of Fixed Odds Betting Terminals …