‘I was shocked’ by Captain Tom charity, says ex-boss

Skilled charity skilled Mr Gilbert was appointed to take over as chief government from Mrs Ingram-Moore and ran the charity for 5 months earlier than it was mothballed as a result of charity fee investigation.

He informed BBC Information: “Once I got here in, I have to admit, I used to be gobsmacked.

I used to be shocked on the variety of methods that simply didn’t accord with finest observe.

One in every of my first workout routines was, after all, to get trusted charity standing for the inspiration, which meant going via a complete vary of various hurdles.

And the actual fact was that though we had completed lots of them, there have been plenty of key practices that merely weren’t in place.”

Mr Gilbert stated when he was establishing administration accounts within the appropriate format for a charity, which had not been completed previous to his arrival, he stated he found an bill to Virgin Media, which had been cancelled.

The Charity Fee discovered Mrs Ingram-Moore was paid £18,000 for an look on the Virgin Media O2 Captain Tom Basis Connector Awards.

She stated the looks was in a private capability and in her personal time, however the fee disagreed, saying there was no proof to help this, and the charity obtained simply £2,000.

“If you happen to’re a chief government for a charity and you’re representing that charity, it is extremely uncommon, extraordinary, for the charity to not profit from actions you have completed throughout your working day,” Mr Gilbert stated.

He stated in his view it was “deeply unethical” for a charity chief government to profit personally on the expense of charity actions.

Mr Gilbert stated he grew to become “fairly suspicious” and reported this fee and different issues he discovered by going via the accounts to the chair, who then reported it to the board.

He stated in his view there was a “degree of self-interest”.