Inside how Captain Tom’s ‘misleading’ daughter hoodwinked Britain to pocket £1.5m – as she’s ordered to pay cash back
CAPTAIN Tom Moore inspired the nation with his lockdown heroics raising millions for the NHS – but his daughter’s actions have tarnished his legacy.
Hannah Ingram-Moore and her husband Colin pocketed £1.5million from a book deal, giving none to his charity.
The Captain Tom Foundation last night asked for the cash back “immediately and without the need for further action”.
A Charity Commission report found the couple plundered the war veteran’s memory for their own profit.
It is understood much of the funds were put into an illegal luxury spa in their garden using the Captain Tom Foundation charity name.
The block was demolished earlier this year after the family lost an appeal against Central Bedfordshire Council’s order for it to be torn down.
COMMENT: Captain Tom Moore would be ashamed of his daughter’s obscene greed
THE SUN SAYS...
CAPTAIN Tom Moore led a life of unblemished selflessness.
He would be ashamed of his daughter’s obscene greed.
The public-spirited World War Two veteran became a national hero during Covid by raising almost £40million for the NHS with a sponsored walk aged 99.
It earned him a knighthood, the love of millions and even a chart-topping hit.
But it was perhaps fortunate Sir Tom never lived to see Hannah Ingram-Moore and husband Colin plunder his philanthropy as a get-rich-quick scheme.
The pair sickeningly pocketed vast sums, cashing in on his memory and giving next to nothing to the charity they set up in his name, as a Charity Commission probe confirms.
Hannah paid herself a lavish salary and built a spa.
What an appalling end to the most uplifting story of that bleak Covid era.
If the Ingram-Moores have a shred of decency they will hand every last remaining Pound to the charity a duped public thought it was funding.
The report also reveals that Ingram-Moore, 54, blocked from paying herself a £150,000 salary as charity CEO, took £85,000 a year and reimbursed her own firm with £80,000 in costs from the foundation.
The couple hoodwinked the public by promising royalties to the charity from its merchandise website.
Instead buyers were redirected to external sites where no commission to good causes was collected.
And they gave the charity £8,900 from a Capt Tom gin from profits thought to be well over £100,000.
Publishers Penguin agreed to pay a £1.4million advance to the Ingram-Moores’ private company for Capt Tom’s memoir on the understanding a contribution would be made to his charity.
He raised nearly £39million for NHS charities by walking 100 lockdown laps of his garden.
In the prologue to Tomorrow Will Be a Good Day, Capt Tom, who died in 2021 aged 100, wrote: “I have also been given the chance to raise even more money for the charitable foundation established in my name.”
Just £17,000 in royalties went to charity.
The report concluded: “The public would understandably feel misled given no donation has been made to the charity.”
Last year, Mrs Ingram-Moore wept as she told Piers Morgan she and her hubby pocketed £800,000 from book sales.
But the true scale of their plunder is far greater.
The Ingram-Moores, who used Capt Tom’s name to try to sell their £2.25million home in Marston Moretaine, Bedfordshire, have been banned as charity trustees.
Penguin said: “We are extremely disappointed.”
Liz Brownsell, of law firm Birketts, said: “There is nothing suggesting fraud.
“It is more a moral than a legal issue.”
How Captain Sir Tom Moore rose to fame & his daughter's controversies
- March 2020 – D-Day veteran Captain Tom Moore walks 100 laps around his Bedfordshire garden before his 100th birthday, raising £30million for the NHS during the first lockdown.
- April 2020 – Captain Tom reaches No. 1 in the charts with his cover of ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’. He receives 100,000 cards for his 100th birthday, which is marked with a Battle of Britain flypast. A train is named after him.
- July 2020 – Captain Tom is knighted by the Queen in a special private ceremony at Windsor Castle.
- September 2020 – Hannah Ingram-Moore launches the Captain Tom Foundation to combat loneliness.
- December 2020 – Drones swarm into the shape of Captain Tom’s face at the New Year’s Eve firework display in London.
- February 2021 – Captain Sir Tom Moore dies after catching covid-19.
- February 2022 – The Charity Commission launches a probe into the Captain Tom foundation after it paid £50,000 to companies run by Hannah Ingram-Moore and her husband Colin.
- July 2023 – The foundation stops accepting donations. Planning chiefs order Hannah to tear down an unauthorised spa at her Bedfordshire home. The building had been approved to be used “in connection with the Captain Tom Foundation and its charitable objectives”. But a larger building with a spa pool was built instead and was denied retrospective planning permission. Hannah appeals.
- September 2023 – accounts reveal Hannah received more than £70,000 to head the foundation.
- October 2023 – Hannah loses her appeal and is ordered to demolish the spa and restore the garden to its original condition.
- January 2023 – Demolition work begins
REPORT’S FINDINGS
The 30-page report published on Thursday after a two-year inquiry found the Ingram-Moores carried out repeated instances of misconduct.
These include “disingenuous” statements from Mrs Ingram-Moore about not being offered a six-figure sum to become the charity’s chief executive.
The commission said it had seen evidence she had set out expectations for a £150,000 remuneration package before taking on the role.
The report also found there was a misleading implication that donations from book sales would be made to the foundation.
It added the public “would understandably feel misled” to learn that sales of his autobiography did not benefit the charity.
An advance of nearly £1.5million was paid for a three-book deal to Club Nook, a firm for which the couple are directors.
The commission also found there was no evidence to support Mrs Ingram-Moore’s claims she attended an awards ceremony – for which she was paid £18,000 – in a personal capacity.
It said just £2,000 of that sum was donated to the charity.
The Ingram-Moores used the foundation’s name in an initial planning application for the illegal spa pool block – which they claimed had been made in error.
The Charity Commission opened the case in March 2021 before it was escalated to a statutory inquiry in June 2022.
The watchdog’s chief executive David Holdsworth said the report found “repeated failures of governance and integrity”, and that its inquiry had been fair, balanced and independent.
He added said the foundation set up in Sir Tom’s name “has not lived up to that legacy of others before self, which is central to charity”.
Charity Commission report's key findings
The 30-page report published on Thursday came after a two-year inquiry
It found the Ingram-Moores carried out repeated instances of misconduct.
These include:
- “disingenuous” statements from Mrs Ingram-Moore about not being offered a six-figure sum to become the charity’s CEO
- a misleading implication that donations from book sales would be made to the foundation
- no evidence to support Mrs Ingram-Moore’s claims she attended an awards ceremony in a personal capacity, for which she was paid £18,000
- The couple used the foundation’s name in an initial planning application for an illegal spa pool block at their home