Charity Commision statement in full as it slams Captain Tom Foundation's 'blurred boundaries'

A Charity Commission study has recovered that the household of precocious pandemic fundraiser Captain Sir Tom Moore gained 'significant' fiscal payment from links to a foundation acceptable up successful his name

The household of the legendary pandemic leader Captain Sir Tom Moore benefited financially from their connections to a foundation founded successful his honour, according to a study from a regulatory body.

The Charity Commission discovered repeated misconduct involving Sir Tom's daughter, Hannah Ingram-Moore, and her spouse, Colin, who person present been prohibited from holding positions arsenic foundation trustees.

The commission's main enforcement has expressed disappointment, stating that their probe revealed "repeated failures of governance and integrity".

David Holdsworth, committee main executive, said the instauration acceptable up successful Sir Tom’s sanction “has not lived up to that bequest of others earlier self, which is cardinal to charity”.

He added: “The public, and the law, rightly expect those progressive successful charities to marque an unambiguous favoritism betwixt their idiosyncratic interests and those of the foundation and the beneficiaries they are determination to serve.

“This did not hap successful the lawsuit of The Captain Tom Foundation. We recovered repeated instances of a blurring of boundaries betwixt backstage and charitable interests, with Mr and Mrs Ingram-Moore receiving important idiosyncratic benefit. Together the failings magnitude to misconduct and/or mismanagement.”

Following an extended two-year investigation, the committee released a 30-page papers connected Thursday detailing their shortcomings. Among these are:.

- "Disingenuous" claims by Mrs Ingram-Moore denying that she was offered a six-figure wage to go the caput of the charity; adjacent though she mightiness not person received specified an offer, the committee revealed written impervious that she had anticipated a remuneration bundle of £150,000 earlier accepting the role.

- Misleading suggestions that profits from publication income would spell towards the foundation. The committee indicated that members of the nationalist "would understandably consciousness misled" erstwhile told that net from his memoir, Tomorrow Will Be A Good Day, did not assistance the charity.

Club Nook, a institution wherever the Ingram-Moores service arsenic directors, already received adjacent to £1.5 cardinal upfront arsenic portion of a three-book agreement.

Mrs Ingram-Moore's assertion that she attended an awards ceremony, for which she was paid £18,000, successful a idiosyncratic capableness was disputed by the commission. They recovered nary grounds to enactment this.

While she pocketed £18,000, lone £2,000, abstracted from that sum, went to the charity. The mates utilized the foundation’s sanction successful an archetypal readying exertion for a spa excavation artifact astatine their home, which they admitted was a mistake made portion they were some "busy undertaking ‘global media work’".

The artifact was demolished earlier this twelvemonth aft they mislaid an entreaty against Central Bedfordshire Council’s bid for it to beryllium torn down. There was disorder implicit the handling of intelligence spot rights, which the committee said were owned by the household but offered to the instauration to usage without due agreements successful place, starring to imaginable fiscal losses for the charity.

The Charity Commission opened a lawsuit into the instauration successful March 2021, escalating it to a statutory enquiry successful June 2022, amid concerns astir the charity’s absorption and independency from Sir Tom’s family. In July, the Ingram-Moores released a connection saying they had been banned from being foundation trustees, and described the commission’s probe arsenic a "harrowing and debilitating ordeal".

The Charity Commission has slapped a 10-year prohibition connected Mrs Ingram-Moore and an eight-year prohibition connected Mr Ingram-Moore from holding trustee oregon elder absorption roles successful immoderate foundation crossed England and Wales. The orders, issued successful May, took effect connected June 25.

While the committee hasn't demanded the foundation's closure, the family's lawyer hinted it mightiness unopen down. The instauration ceased accepting donations successful summertime 2023, but the funds raised by the precocious Sir Tom for NHS Charities Together anterior to the foundation's instauration were not scrutinised by the commission’s inquiry.

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".