Northern Rock Stonewalls Down’s Charity

Beleaguered bank Northern Rock is being investigated by the Charity Commission, after being accused of exploiting a Down’s syndrome charity to make money for itself.

A Jersey-based offshore trust called Granite was supposed to have been set up by the bank to generate money, some of which would be donated to a small charity for people with Down’s syndrome.

Yet when approached by the Guardian, Newcastle-based charity Down’s syndrome North East (DSNE) announced that it had never received a penny from the trust and nor had it been informed it was a beneficiary.

Asked by the newspaper for an explanation, Northern Rock apologised and said it was merely an “oversight”. The bank said the charity might a donation in the future if its trust was ever wound up.

Granite was set up in December 2000 and raised £71 billion of funds for the bank on the pretext of being for charitable purposes.

The Charity Commission said yesterday it would “get to the bottom” of the matter, while Jim Cousins, Labour MP for Newcastle upon Tyne Central, said: “It is completely unforgivable that when the charity was nominated as a potential beneficiary, somebody didn’t go to them explaining the whole situation, and reassuring them that the charity was not at risk in some way.”

DSNE operates from a semi-detached house in near Gosforth where Northern Rock is developing its new £35 million headquarters and in the last financial year it had an income of just £85,997.