Captain Sir Tom Moore’s daughter and son-in-law have been disqualified from being charity trustees for serious “misconduct and/or mismanagement” as part of an investigation by the regulator.
Hannah Ingram-Moore has been disqualified for ten years, and her husband, Colin, for eight years, after the Charity Commission’s investigation of the Captain Tom Foundation, which was set up to honour her father.
Ingram-Moore has already admitted that £800,000 from the sale of her father’s books went to one of the family’s companies — money she claimed they had been promised by Moore.
On Wednesday the couple accused the Charity Commission of a “relentless pursuit” of them, but the regulator defended its disqualification as “proportionate and lawful”.
David Holdsworth, the chief executive of the Charity Commission, said: “As a fair, independent and evidence-led regulator we only disqualify someone from serving as a trustee or a senior manager in a charity when the evidence gathered means it is proportionate and lawful to do so.
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“The evidence in this investigation meant that the level of misconduct and/or mismanagement was serious enough to warrant this action.
“People generously support good causes with the clear expectation that trustees will act in the best interests of their charities.
“As an independent regulator, it is vital that we uphold and protect this trust, including by taking robust regulatory action where appropriate, based on firm evidence.”
The suspension means the couple are barred from being charity trustees and from holding an office or employment with senior management functions in charities.
The commission said that the disqualification was in the public interest.
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The commission launched a statutory inquiry into the Captain Tom Foundation two years ago, to investigate serious concerns about its governance and financial controls.
The Ingram-Moores became trustees of the charity, set up to continue raising cash for good causes in the veteran’s name, in 2021.
Ingram-Moore, 53, stepped down that year to become its interim chief executive, a role she held until April 2022, while her husband, 67, stopped being a trustee last month.
Concerns surrounding the foundation emerged in 2022 over money earned by two companies controlled by the Ingram-Moores, Club Nook Limited and Maytrix Group Limited.
Last year, Ingram-Moore said that her father had wanted his family to hold proceeds from the sale of his books, eventually totalling £800,000, in Club Nook Ltd, separate from the Captain Tom Foundation.
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However, in the prologue to Moore’s memoir, Tomorrow Will Be A Good Day, the fundraiser indicated that the proceeds would be going to his charity.
He said: “With the offer to write this memoir I have also been given the chance to raise even more money for the charitable foundation now established in my name.”
In a statement yesterday, the Ingram-Moore family said: “The disqualification has been imposed without the conclusion of the statutory inquiry into the Captain Tom Foundation.
“The commission’s failure to conclude the inquiry prolongs our deep distress and hinders our ability to move on with our lives, extending the pain and impact on our family and our father/grandfather’s legacy.
“It has been a harrowing and debilitating ordeal that has gone on for over two years.
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“We are increasingly concerned that the Charity Commission’s process may have evolved into a relentless pursuit, and question whether it is a tactic by the commission to make our lives more difficult, by suspending us in constant fear and mental anguish.”
The Ingram-Moores said they had made the “extremely difficult decision” not to appeal the disqualification owing to the “profound emotional upheaval and financial burden” it would bring.
The couple added that the disqualification orders did not state that they misappropriated or received unauthorised payments from the charity’s funds, including public donations.
Their statement said: “We have never accessed or made any payments from the charity’s bank account. Independent trustees have maintained full control over the charity’s finances since inception.”
The Charity Commission investigation into the foundation is ongoing and it is not known when it will conclude.
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The Captain Tom Foundation was registered in 2020 in the month after the Second World War veteran, who served in Burma and India, raised £39.3 million for the NHS with a mission to walk 100 lengths of his garden.
That money is not part of the Charity Commission’s investigation. He died in 2021 after contracting Covid while in hospital being treated for pneumonia.
A lawyer for the Ingram-Moores has previously stated that the foundation could shut down.
Two years of revelations and an uncertain future
This fresh blow to the reputation of The Captain Tom Foundation — set up in honour of one of Britain’s most incredible fundraisers — will add to questions over the charity’s future (writes James Beal).
The Charity Commission, responding to a statement from Hannah and Colin Ingram-Moore on Wednesday, did not reveal exactly why it had made disqualification orders against them.
But it did make clear that the level of misconduct or mismanagement uncovered was “serious enough” to warrant charity trustee disqualifications for ten and eight years respectively.
It comes after more than two years of damaging revelations about the foundation, and the couple who were, at one stage, trustees.
First it emerged that the foundation had spent £240,000 on costs and consultants in its first year, more than it gave away in grants.
It was then revealed that more than £54,000 had been paid by the foundation to two of Mrs Ingram-Moore’s firms during the 2020-2021 financial year.
The foundation said these were reimbursement costs.
Last year, in an interview with Piers Morgan on TalkTV, Mrs Ingram-Moore said the “vast majority” of the £809,000 revenue raised by one of her companies, Club Nook Ltd, came from the three books Moore wrote with Penguin Random House.
She told Morgan: “They were Captain Tom’s books and his wishes were that that money would sit in Club Nook.” Morgan asked: “For you to keep?” She replied: “Yes — specifically.”
Earlier this year, the Ingram-Moores were forced to demolish an unauthorised spa pool block at their home.
They had been granted permission in 2021 to build a Captain Tom Foundation Building in the grounds of the property in Marston Moretaine, Bedfordshire.
A subsequent retrospective application a year ago for a larger building containing a spa pool was refused by the planning authority.
After deciding not to appeal against the disqualification decision, the Ingram-Moores went on the front foot on Wednesday and released their own statement revealing the commission’s decision.
At that stage, it had not been made public by the commission.
They criticised the ongoing statutory inquiry, which was announced almost exactly two years ago, for prolonging their “harrowing” and “debilitating” ordeal.
A lawyer for the family previously warned that the Captain Tom Foundation could be forced to shut down.
In October last year, during an appeal hearing against the spa pool block demolition, the barrister Scott Stemp said the charity was “unlikely to exist” in the future.
A message currently on the foundation’s website says it is “not presently actively seeking any funding from donors” owing to the Charity Commission inquiry.
It adds: “Once the findings of the statutory inquiry have been communicated, the Captain Tom Foundation will be in a better position to make a decision in relation to its future.”
