Captain Sir Tom Moore's famiily 'pocketed £1million in World War 2 hero's name'

The household of leader fundraiser Captain Sir Tom Moore person been slammed by a watchdog for pocketing 1 cardinal pounds successful his name.

Sir Tom’s girl and her hubby gained “significant” fiscal payment from links to a foundation acceptable up during the pandemic, a study 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 astir £39 cardinal during the Covid-19 situation by walking 100 lengths of his plot up 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 fixed a BBC Sports Personality of the Year grant and performed successful a chart-topping euphony single. Sir Tom was knighted by the Queen successful July 2020 and died, aged 100, successful February 2021 aft contracting Covid-19.

The Captain Tom Foundation was acceptable up by his girl Hannah Ingram-Moore, 53, and her husband, Colin, 66, successful his honour. However, it became the taxable of respective allegations, starring to investigations by the Charity Commission and Fundraising Regulator.

The Charity Commission archetypal opened a compliance lawsuit successful March 2021 and began reviewing the organisation's setup. It opened a statutory enquiry - usually reserved for lone the astir superior cases - successful June 2022.

Now the watchdog’s study has been published - and is damning successful its disapproval of Hannah Ingram-Moore and her hubby Colin.

It concluded determination had been repeated instances of misconduct by the pair, who person already been banned from being foundation trustees. The study said the couple’s “misconduct and/or mismanagement” was a “repeated signifier of behaviour”.

It revealed income of Captain Tom’s autobiography ‘Tomorrow Will Be A Good Day’ did not payment The Captain Tom Foundation. In the book’s foreword, helium wrote of being fixed “the accidental to rise adjacent much wealth for the charitable instauration present established successful my name.”

Instead, an beforehand of £1.4m for the three-book woody was paid to Club Nook - a institution of which the Ingram-Moores are directors.

Literary cause Bev James, who represented Captain Tom, said the mates were “very clear” they did not privation the wealth to spell to charity. The Commission said that “to date, the foundation has not received immoderate wealth from the archetypal publishing agreement”.

It said the nationalist “would understandably consciousness misled” to larn that the foundation did not payment from the publication sales. The study said their nonaccomplishment to honour the donation “has earnestly damaged the estimation of the charity”.

It called connected the mates to marque a "suitable donation" to "honour the committedness that Captain Tom stated successful the foreword" to the book.

It said determination was grounds Mrs Ingram-Moore acceptable retired expectations for a £150,000 wage earlier becoming the charity’s main executive.

It besides revealed she personally pocketed an £18,000 interest for appearing astatine an awards ceremony. Just £2,000 was donated to the foundation aft she claimed her quality astatine the Virgin Media Awards was undertaken successful a idiosyncratic capacity.

The committee criticised the mates for utilizing the foundation’s sanction successful a readying exertion for a spa excavation artifact astatine their Bedfordshire home. Mrs Ingram-Moore and her hubby said it had been an mistake which they blamed connected being engaged “undertaking planetary media work”.

Planners gave “significant weight... to the information that the foundation was to usage the projected gathering for its charitable purposes,” the study said. But the £200,000 artifact was demolished earlier this twelvemonth aft a revised readying exertion did not diagnostic the connection “charity” oregon “foundation”.

The study authors said grounds suggests the mates “were utilizing the foundation and its sanction inappropriately for their backstage benefit”.

Charity committee bosses besides criticised disorder implicit the handling of intelligence spot rights. The study said those rights were owned by the household but offered to the instauration to usage without due agreements successful place. This led to imaginable fiscal losses to the charity, it stated.

In July the Ingram-Moores described the Charity Commission’s probe arsenic a “harrowing and debilitating ordeal”. But its main enforcement David Holdsworth said the instauration had “not lived up to that bequest of others earlier self, which is cardinal to charity”.

He said the Ingram-Moores had failed to “make an unambiguous favoritism betwixt their idiosyncratic interests and those of the foundation and the beneficiaries they are determination to serve”.

“We recovered repeated instances of a blurring of boundaries betwixt backstage and charitable interests, with Mr and Mrs Ingram-Moore receiving important idiosyncratic benefit,” helium added. “Together the failings magnitude to misconduct and/or mismanagement.”

The committee has not called connected the instauration to close, but a lawyer for the household has antecedently indicated the foundation mightiness unopen down. It stopped taking donations successful the summertime of 2023.

Money raised for the NHS, which was donated to NHS Charities Together, was not portion of the scope of the Charity Commission inquiry.

The Captain Tom Foundation was registered successful June 2020 pursuing his fundraising efforts, which attracted worldwide publicity. Its archetypal yearly accounts showed the foundation incurred £240,000 successful costs and gave £160,000 to bully causes.

It has antecedently been claimed that a ‘Captain Sir Tom’ gin sold to rise wealth for the instauration breached foundation law. Bottles of the gin had been connected connection for £100 connected Otterbeck Distillery’s website, with an “all profits” donation to the foundation.

The constricted variation 50cl bottles were being sold without specifying the magnitude going to charity, arsenic it legally required.

A spokesperson representing the distillery and instauration said “around £30” would spell to foundation “after work and accumulation costs”. It was yet removed from sale.

A spokesperson for the Captain Tom Foundation said: "The Captain Tom Foundation is pleased with the Charity Commission's unequivocal findings regarding the Ingram-Moores' misconduct. We articulation the Charity Commission successful imploring the Ingram-Moores to rectify matters by returning the funds owed to the Foundation, truthful that they tin beryllium donated to well-deserving charities arsenic intended by the precocious Captain Sir Tom Moore. We anticipation they bash truthful instantly and without the request for further action."

The Ingram-Moores said they felt "unfairly and unjustly" treated and accused the committee of "selective storytelling". They said: "A credible regulatory assemblage would supply the afloat truth, alternatively than misrepresenting, and conflating facts and timelines that align with a predetermined agenda.

"True accountability demands transparency, not selective storytelling." They said the enquiry had taken a "serious toll connected our family's intelligence and carnal health, unfairly tarnishing our sanction and affecting our quality to transportation connected Captain Sir Tom's legacy".