Behavior at charity Captain Tom left former boss ‘stunned’

November 21, 2024, 10:15 pm

The former head of the Captain Tom Moore Foundation said he was “stunned” by what he saw at the charity event.

Jack Gilbert said behavior at the charity “shocked” him as he accused Captain Tom’s daughter of being driven partly by self-interest.

It comes after an investigation found Captain Tom’s daughter and her husband were using a charity set up in her father’s name for their “significant” personal gain.

The Charity Commission has ruled that Hannah Ingram-Moore and her husband Colin committed repeated misconduct in their management of the Captain Tom Foundation.

Read more: Captain Tom’s daughter and her husband saw “significant personal benefit” from their father’s charity, an investigation has found.

Speaking for the first time since the investigation’s findings were made public, Mr Gilbert, the charity’s former chief executive, said: “When I arrived I have to admit I was stunned.

“I was shocked by the number of systems that simply did not meet best practice.”

Speaking to the BBC, he added: “One of my first things was, of course, getting the foundation to become a trusted charity, which meant overcoming a number of different hurdles.

“And the fact is that while we accomplished many of them, there were a lot of key practices that simply weren’t there.”

The commission set up the inquiry in 2021 and it became a formal inquiry in 2022 as concerns grew over the way Mr and Mrs Ingram-Moore were handling the charity.

Ms Ingram-Moore was “candid” when she claimed she was not offered a six-figure sum to run the fund, the investigation found.

Although this was technically correct, she had actually previously asked for £150,000 but was refused. She was later given a prorated salary of £85,000 a year for nine months.

Club Nook, of which the Ingram-Moores are directors, received an advance of almost £1.5 million for the Captain Tom books.

The commission said the public would “understandably feel misled” by learning that sales of his autobiography, Tomorrow Will Be a Good Day, did not benefit the charity.

“If you are the director of a charity and you represent that charity, it is very unusual and unheard of for the charity to not benefit from the activities you carried out during your working day,” Mr Gilbert added.

He said Captain Tom’s charity was a “missed opportunity” and called it “deeply unethical” for charity leaders to benefit from their work.