The downfall of Hannah Ingram-Moore and the Captain Tom Foundation is a tale of human folly

According to the bio connected her website, Hannah Ingram-Moore is “one of Britain’s starring concern women”. As good arsenic being a beingness manager who teaches radical to “Be Moore Remarkable”, she claims to stock the values of her begetter — the lockdown hero, Captain Tom Moore.

“Everything successful my beingness is astir investing successful others,” she is quoted arsenic saying. “I consciousness the value of work for doing the close thing, for not letting radical down and responding to the emotion and compassion that has travel our way.”

It’s hard not to guffaw astatine each this successful airy of the two-year enquiry into the Captain Tom Foundation, which was published past nighttime LINK TO NEWS. In a damning 30-page report, the Charity Commission details the “serious and repeated instances of misconduct” by the Ingram-Moores, who were founders and trustees of the charity.

The communicative reads similar a fairytale successful reverse. It begins successful harmony, with Captain Tom Moore raising implicit £38 cardinal for the NHS during lockdown successful 2020 by walking loops of his garden. He became the patron saint of selfless determination for a federation craving unity. The 100-year-old was knighted for his fundraising efforts but died successful February 2021 aft catching Covid. At this constituent the panto-villain figures of his girl Hannah and her hubby Colin instrumentality centre stage.

The Captain Tom Foundation was acceptable up by the mates with the purpose of raising wealth for charities that enactment the elderly, sick and vulnerable. It has raised implicit £1.4 cardinal for 7 charities, according to its website. However, the Charity Commission’s main enforcement David Holdsworth says that Hannah and Colin Ingram-Moore benefited importantly from endeavours related to the foundation and that determination was a repeated "blurring of boundaries betwixt backstage and charitable interests".

The mates are recovered to person personally benefited from the instauration done a bid of lucrative deals and commercialized ventures dressed up arsenic charitable ones. Money that was ostensibly raised for those successful request recovered its mode into the pockets of the Ingram-Moores, portion Captain Tom’s sanction was plastered implicit everything from bottles of gin to readying applications, giving commercialized and idiosyncratic ventures a veneer of philanthropy.

Perhaps the astir egregious uncovering from the study is that the Ingram-Moores pocketed a £1.5 cardinal beforehand from Penguin for a three-book woody with Captain Tom. Both Penguin and the books’ publicist told the enquiry that they believed portion of the beforehand would spell to charity, but nary of it did. Nor did proceeds from Captain Tom’s memoir, Tomorrow Will Be A Good Day, contempt a property merchandise which claimed that income would “support the Captain Tom Foundation”.

The 4th publication authored by Captain Tom is the lone 1 that has raised wealth for charity. 100 Reasons to Hope was published successful 2021, and £1 for each transcript sold was donated to charity, raising £17,862. Other than those funds, the publication deals were “purely commercial”, contempt appearing to beryllium charitable ventures, according to the inquiry.

It’s wide to see where the temptation lay. A saintly nimbus glowed astir the sanction of Captain Tom and the Ingram-Moores decided to capitalise connected it. They applied for readying support for an outbuilding astatine their location successful Bedfordshire, calling it the “Captain Tom Foundation Building”. Perhaps it would beryllium determination to big foundation events oregon workshops for the vulnerable, but it transpired that they were gathering an indoor spa and excavation complex. I accidental the logic was, my Dad raised astir £40 cardinal for charity, can’t I astatine slightest get a bloody swimming excavation retired of it? A enactment said by Lena Dunham’s mum successful the TV amusement Girls springs to mind. “I’ve worked precise hard,” she says, reasoning of her retirement. “I privation a lakehouse. I privation to beryllium by a f***ing lake”.

When Hannah Ingram-Moore was taking up the relation of CEO of the charity, she initially asked for a £150k salary. This petition was rejected connected the grounds that it was astir treble the mean wage for a CEO successful a charity’s archetypal year. The mates besides acceptable up an online store selling each sorts of Captain Tom branded merch, from T-shirts to a reddish roseate to a £100 vessel of gin. It was each precise hazy however overmuch of the profits from the online store was going to charity, but the committee recovered that lone £1,269.75 was donated wide and the website operated astatine a loss. But remember, Hannah is 1 of “Britain’s starring concern women”.

There is simply a upland of grounds detailing the misdemeanours of the Ingram-Moores, ranging from incompetence to immorality. In July Hannah and Colin were disqualified from acting arsenic foundation trustees for 10 and 8 years respectively, but the mates importune that the enquiry has been excessively hard connected them. "We are progressively acrophobic that the Charity Commission's process whitethorn person evolved into a relentless pursuit,” they said, adding that they were successful “constant fearfulness and intelligence anguish.”

All the branded merch and the shady dealings and the six-figure wage demands constituent to the thought that the Ingram-Moores had that astir quality of feelings aft Captain Tom’s prima turn: what’s successful it for us? As main enforcement of the foundation committee David Holdsworth enactment it, Captain Tom inspired the federation with his “determined fundraising”, but “the foundation acceptable up successful his sanction has not lived up to that bequest of others earlier self.” They turned Captain Tom into a marque sanction and a business, tarnishing that precise axenic representation of a antheral doing his small spot to assistance others.

Some, if not astir radical are not chopped retired for foundation work, and it appears the Ingram-Moores are a shining illustration of that. In each likelihood, the satellite is made up of much Hannahs than Toms, but immoderate are conscionable amended astatine hiding it than others.