Former Charity Fund-Raiser Faces Prison Term

A former charity fund-raiser who was at the centre of a multi-million-pound scandal is facing a jail term, after he appeared in court yesterday and admitted a £450,000 fraud charge. Anthony Freeman, 40, of Newlands, Glasgow, diverted the money from his ailing company and paid it into a Mediterranean bank account to keep it from creditors.

A judge was asked to allow Freeman to remain on bail until he is sentenced next month, but Lord Kinclaven said at the High Court in Edinburgh that he should be remanded in custody “having regard to the serious nature of the charge”.

Lord Kinclaven also made a confiscation order against Freeman in the sum of £210,000, which represents the realisable assets the Crown has been able to put against his name.

Freeman hit the headlines in 2003 when the Scottish Charities Office (SCO) went to court to have him suspended from any role in the management of Breast Cancer Research (Scotland).

The charity had signed up for Freeman’s fund-raising services through his Paisley-based business Solutions RMC.

But the contract meant the Breast Cancer Research effectively lost the right to engage in any form of fund-raising on its own behalf. The trustees of the charity who had signed the contract were all employees of Solutions RMC.

The SCO complained that the charity had been used as a vehicle for Freeman and his company to collect money and to charge excessive commission.

It said that the charity had raised some £13.2 million during its existence, but only about £1.5 million had gone to charitable causes. Almost 60 per cent of the cash, some £8 million, had been paid to the professional fund-raiser by way of commission.

A Court of Session judge agreed to suspend Freeman and the charity’s trustees, and also to freeze its bank accounts.

In the wake of the suspensions, police investigated Breast Cancer Research (Scotland) and an English charity, Breast Cancer Relief, for which Solutions RMC also acted as fund-raiser, but nothing was found to substantiate any complaint of fraud. However, an irregularity in the books of Solutions RMC was detected, leading to yesterday’s hearing.

Freeman, who had earned £190,000 a year from Solutions RMC, admitted that on 30 May, 2003, he fraudulently removed £450,337 from his company to a bank account of the Federal Bank of the Middle East, Nicosia, Cyprus, and falsified company records. His not guilty pleas to further charges of tax fraud were accepted by the Crown.

The advocate-depute, Graeme Jessop, said the offence had been committed days before the firm, which had 84 employees, went into voluntary liquidation.

Freeman had stated that his company had got into difficulty following the freezing of the assets of its only two clients, the charities.

Mr Jessop reported that the winding-up of Solutions RMC had still to be finalised, but preferred creditors were due almost £300,000 and the best estimate was that they were likely to recover only 5p in every £1.

The defence counsel, Peter Gray, QC, said that while Freeman had pleaded guilty to a significantly reduced indictment, he was under no illusions as to the seriousness of his position.

“He is extremely anxious to make amends,” added Mr Gray, asking for Freeman’s bail to be continued.

The judge said that at this stage, after a guilty plea had been tendered, he was satisfied that the only course was to remand Freeman until he is sentenced.
Rewriting the law

THE Breast Cancer Research (Scotland) case is one of two scandals involving charities that led to a change in Scots law.

The other centred on the Moonbeams Trust, established in 1992 to assist child cancer victims. The Edinburgh-based charity, set up by Willie Power after the death of his daughter, raised almost £3 million but used only £185,000 to help children. A court banned Mr Power and Moonbeam’s four other directors from running charities.

In the wake of these revelations, the Scottish Executive passed the Charities and Trustee Investment Act in 2005, which established the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, whose main function is to determine an organisation’s charitable status based on certain key criteria.