Captain Sir Tom Moore's charity under formal investigation.

I did not play into the whole Captain Tom stuff when it first started I thought what a great old man and lovely to walk round and make some money for charity and give everyone a cheery lift and probably himself too then it went on and on and it all became a celebrity circus as these things tend to it grew legs and started to run When I heard the family were taking him to the Caribbean I thought they had lost their minds, he died very soon afterwards but the adoration went on and on growing and something didn’t feel right
I hope there hasn’t been any fiddling hopefully it’s just all got out of hand and it just needs sorting
I don’t have any bad feelings about the old man just wondered about those pushing him hopefully it ll prove all ok

willow68 that's the way I thought it was as well. What we've got now is media hype - building a mountain out of a molehill in order to sell their papers. Sir Tom was an old man trying to keep as fit as possible for as long as possible. Someone in his family thought it would be fun to make it a sponsored walk in aid of the NHS which would encourage him to keep going. The whole thing escalated because the media saw good copy in it. And so it goes on. If there are any bad guys here I think they will be found among the ranks of the media!

Did the media make them take a 100 year old man to the Caribbean in the middle of a pandemic though Something went wrong in someone’s head and I doubt it was the dear old chap

It was his Family who put in on the internet!....where the press picked it up from of course!

also.....it's not all over the press anymore only all over gransnet!

@Urmstongran
Let's face it, they were always dodgy.

At the time I was surprised how naïve the nation was, but BJ was desperate for a hero during the lockdown, to gives us all a distraction and one was found in Captain Tom, who enjoyed the limelight and his family were awarded very handsomely for his efforts.
How anyone believed Captain Tom, a one hundred year old man, know enough about the social media to generate such vast sums of money 'all by himself' must have been mad. You don't raise that sort of money just walking around the garden.

Others, more in tune with the workings of social media and the internet were involved, and for no other reason then to make money, lots of it for themselves. Yes, Captain Tom's initial intentions were admirable, modestly raising money for the NHS charities, who was grateful for any donation, no matter how big or small. However despite the COVID dangers to himself and others, he was awarded with a knighthood from the Queen, in person, a Christmas holiday in the Caribbean and a secure financial future for his family, so he was human after all.

All the other people who walked, ran, swam, rowed and worked for charities during this period did not get any personal rewards because they did it for the good of the nation.

I don't know Bluebelle. It never really registered with me, though I was aware I think. Maybe it was somewhere he always wanted to see before he died? He had such spirit, I'm sure he enjoyed it!

It's such a shame that everyone seems to want to believe the worst.

Annewilco

‘Let’s face it, they were always dodgy.’ ????
You can’t honestly believe that.

They seemed like thoroughly honest and decent people to me.

I didn’t think they were dishonest people I just didn’t like the way it suddenly became so over the top and I felt the old boy was being propelled along at great speed by the family and I thought it all became more their wants Let’s hope it wasn’t and he was moving it all forward himself

Captain Tom and his campaign inspired me on many fronts. At the time I was suffering extreme mobility difficulties so looked at his efforts going up and down, up and down every day as something to admire and emulate.
Like him, I had a simple accident which altered my life in a split second. For him it was a fall against a kitchen gadget. For me it was a fall in a badminton game.
I thought his whole family seemed very sincere and would hate to think that there was anything dodgy about the fund he built up. There seemed to be so much love in their family set up.

Did he build the fund up albertina or did the family ?
.

Some of you are missing the point I feel. Whilst there is apparently no suggestion that the funds donated by the public were at risk, Mrs Ingram-Moore tried to be appointed as CEO, firstly at a salary of £60k for a 3 day week, secondly at an annual salary of £100k and finally, successfully on a 9 month contract of £85k pa. This would have been paid by the charity.

People complain a lot about the large charities, Oxfam, Save the Children etc and their expenses. Last year the head of Save the Children International was paid £188,990 out of an annual revenue of US$2 billion. They don't complain of organisations such as Nuffield Health, which operates as a charity and whose chief exec was paid £780k.

As someone mentioned above, many of the small, private charities which have been set up by friends and family of someone, are often badly run or even fraudulent. There have been many examples of this over the years.

Often the CEOs of the large charities are people who've already made their pile before moving into the charity sector.

grannygranby

I never understood it. I never understood why people will do anything to avoid taxes that pay for the NHS and yet would happily send money to it as if it was a charity which it isn’t. Cleverly marketed and I’m not surprised that it was a scam. But it obviously made a lot of people feel better that they were honouring and old person being stoical and brave, a man who nonetheless had always lived a privileged life. yes he was used but he didn’t know it.

But the 30 odd million was shared out already....our nhs team got about £325 early 2021....I'm guessing everyone else got their share too

Well said Dinahmo. I once worked for a small charitable organisation, which relied on the good will of many volunteers and well-meaning donors. I was quite shocked how much a handful of people were paying themselves for their (ahem) services.

Before I give to charities I look up the figures for CEO salary and the percentage of the donations which actually go to the cause. I never thought I would do this but unfortunately a sign of the times. I like to donate where more of my money goes to those who need it.

I think it is a shame if this is true but it would not surprise me! I am quite cynical about many charities who pay out vast sums of money to their directors and who manage to afford swanky offices on the backs of their hard working volunteers and the generous public involvement they attract. There are other ethical considerations too. I can think of one recent scandal that prompted me to withdraw my longstanding support and transfer it to a much smaller local charity where I am sure where my money goes! I think we have to be very careful to ensure the charities we support are actually run in a responsible and moral way. It seems that these days that we can trust nothing and no one when even the Prince of Wales behaves in a questionable manner when he naively accepts donations to his much publicised charities from somewhat dubious sources as he has recently done. In the case mentioned here, profiteering may be an issue but we will have to leave it to the rather toothless Charities Commission to see if they actually can make a decision on it.

He has another daughter, Lucy, who kept out of the limelight.

Doodle dog you are rude. This is a discussion site

The daughter Lucy had the knowhow to publicise and put on twitter ect ect where all media picked it up.

several others started to do walks to raise funds but of course without publicity they weren't known accept in their locality.

Grantanow

I think it's quite wrong to speculate about this. Wait for the investigation to report.

Innocent we hope until proven guilty, if proven guilty I would not like to be in their place. If not guilty well good for them for raising all that money for Charity. We will all have to wait and see.

BlueBelle

Yes he who likes to not only blow his own trumpet but likes it blown for him
MissA knows what I mean

?????

Nannyknee

Doodle dog you are rude. This is a discussion site

It is; but expecting other people to do the searching for you when you are online yourself is a bit cheeky, isn't it? Nobody's stopping anyone from discussing, but come on ?

Nannyknee I quite agree, an innocent (even if a little naive) question politely asked should not be answered in such an abrupt manner. That must have knocked Toetoe's confidence quite a bit. We are supposed to be a friendly group not just a clique.