Captain Sir Tom Moore’s family have branded a report about their ties with a charity set up in his name as ‘unjust and excessive’ and insisted they ‘never took a penny’ from public donations.
The Ingram-Moores also claimed they have been treated ‘unfairly and unjustly’ by the two-year Charity Commission investigation which released a highly critical set of findings yesterday.
In a statement, they spoke of the ‘serious toll’ the inquiry has had on the family’s health and accused the watchdog of ‘unfairly tarnishing’ their name. They added that the watchdog had a ‘predetermined agenda’.
The 30-page investigation document found the family gained ‘significant personal benefit’ from the Captain Tom Foundation.
The record-breaking fundraiser’s daughter, Hannah Ingram-Moore, and her husband, Colin, made ‘repeated failures’ at the helm of the foundation, according to the inquiry.
The family responded: ‘True accountability demands transparency, not selective storytelling.
‘We remain dedicated to upholding Captain Sir Tom’s legacy and want the public to know, that there has never been any misappropriation of funds or unauthorised payments from the charity’s bank account, by any member of our family.’
The Ingram-Moores also said that they ‘never took a penny’ from public donations when Sir Tom raised millions for NHS charities by walking laps of his garden during the coronavirus lockdown.
They said it is ‘deeply painful’ to think people might believe otherwise.
The Captain Tom Foundation was set up to spread the generosity shown by the late Second World War veteran among a wide range of good causes. Captain Tom raised £38.9 million for NHS Charities Together, a separate charity, by walking 100 laps of his garden for his 100th birthday at the height of the Covid lockdown in 2020.
The millions donated to NHS Charities Together before the foundation was formed were not part of the commission’s inquiry.
The report found a misleading implication that donations from book sales would be made to the Captain Tom Foundation.
An advance of almost £1.5 million was paid to Club Nook, a company of which the Ingram-Moores are directors, for a three-book deal and none of that has gone to the foundation, the regulator said.
The Ingram-Moore family accused the Charity Commission of a ‘breach of privacy’ as an extract of a private book deal with Penguin Random House was ‘publicly disclosed’.
They went on: ‘Such an action raises serious concerns about privacy protections.
‘If a confidential contract, complete with privacy clauses, can be so casually released, what does this mean for the privacy of others, public figures or otherwise?
‘The publisher paid Captain Sir Tom a fee, it was his and he decided what to do with it.’
The family added that ‘significant fees’ from the book deal were paid to the literary agent, legal and PR professionals, with portions of the money used to support the Captain Tom Foundation.
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