It will investigate concerns about the charity’s management and independence from the late veteran’s family.
The Charity Commission has launched an inquiry into The Captain Tom Foundation, after PoliticsJOE revealed a private firm run by his daughter “may have generated significant profit” from trademarking his name.
It follows the launch of a compliance case in March last year, just a month after Sir Tom’s passing, to review the set-up of the organisation.
The watchdog said it was “concerned” that trademarking “may have generated significant profit” for a company linked to Sir Tom’s daughter, Hannah Ingram-Moore, and her husband Colin.
A statutory inquiry is the commission’s most serious form of investigation, carried out when it is concerned that there is a risk of wrongdoing.
Sir Captain Tom was propelled into the limelight, after he challenged himself to walk 100 laps of his garden, with the goal of raising £1,000 by his 100th birthday on 30 April.
By the time the campaign closed at the end of his birthday, he had raised an astonishing £32.79 million (worth almost £39 million with expected tax rebates) in aid of the health service’s charitable wing, NHS Charities Together.
On 17 July 2020, he was personally knighted by the Queen at Windsor Castle. He died on 2 February 2021 after testing positive for Coronavirus.
The Captain Tom Foundation was then registered, following the war veteran’s fundraising efforts.
Publication of the first annual accounts of the foundation in March 2022 showed the charity received over £1 million worth of donations, incurred £240,000 in costs and gave £160,000 to good causes.
The inquiry, launched on June 16, will investigate whether trustees, including his daughter, have “been responsible for mismanagement and/or misconduct in the administration of the charity and whether, as a result, the charity has suffered any financial losses, including through any unauthorised private benefit to any of the current or previous trustees”.
It will also probe whether trustees have “complied with and fulfilled their duties and responsibilities under charity law”.
Related Links
- Captain Tom foundation has spent more than 10% of donations on consultants
- Captain Tom Foundation being investigated by Charity Commission over accounts
- Captain Tom charity ‘tried to appoint daughter as CEO’ on £150,000 a year
