A man who was the former chief executive of the Captain Tom Foundation has spoken out about the ‘self interest’ shown by the family.
Jack Gilbert, said he has been left ‘shocked’ by the actions of the family – which include Hannah Ingram-Moore and her partner Colin.
The family came under the spotlight since Captain Tom’s death for pocketing money from his NHS fundraising.
A damning Charity Commission report concluded Captain Tom’s family gained ‘significant personal benefit’ from their links to the charity.
They even planned to build a controversial spa built without planning permission at their Grade II listed family home and which they attempted to pass off as being for the elderly in the local community.
Then there is the fact that they pocketed a £1.5million book advance but none of this ended up with the foundation – it ended up being paid to a family company instead.
Mr Gilbert has now spoken out for the first time to BBC News and took over as chief executive from Hannah for five months.
He said: ‘When I came in, I must admit, I was gobsmacked.
‘I was shocked at the number of systems that just did not accord with best practice.
‘One of my first exercises was, of course, to get trusted charity status for the foundation, which meant going through a whole range of different hurdles.
‘And the fact was that although we had done many of them, there were lots of key practices that simply were not in place.’
Mr Gilbert revealed that he believes the charity was left in this state because Hannah was fuelled by self-interest.
Another major issue he also found was the fact that management accounts had not been set up in the correct format.
One of the other first major issues he encountered was an invoice to Virgin Media that had been cancelled.
The Commission report found that Hannah appeared at the Virgin Media O2 Captain Tom Foundation Connector Awards and was paid £18,000 for the appearance.
Hannah argued this was in a personal capacity but the commission disagreed.
Her actions were reported by Mr Gilbert to the chair of the charity and this was then reported to the board.
Mr Gilbert believes it is ‘deeply unethical’ for Hannah to benefit from charity activities.
Since the scandal emerged to the shock of the world, the family has been disqualified from being charity trustees.
A spokesperson for the foundation said that they are ‘pleased with the Charity Commission’s unequivocal findings regarding the Ingram-Moores’ misconduct’.
The Ingram-Moore family maintains that there was no misappropriation of funds from the charity and they have been treated ‘unfairly and unjustly’.
Captain Tom became famous when he walked laps around his garden during lockdown and raised money for the NHS in 2020.
The inquiry into the Captain Tom Foundation was opened in 2021 following his death.
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