The daughter of lockdown hero Captain Sir Tom Moore is facing mounting anger after a charity watchdog found she pocketed nearly £1.5million from a book deal.
The Charity Commission today criticised Hannah Ingram-Moore, 53, and husband Colin, 66, in a report which said they gained significant financial benefit from the Captain Tom Foundation, which was set up in 2020. A probe launched after the Second World War veteran's death aged 100 in 2021 uncovered "repeated failures of governance and integrity".
The charity watchdog said there had been a misleading implication that donations from sales of Captain Tom's book would go to the foundation. However proceeds of a £1.4million book deal were instead paid to the couple's company Club Nook. The report said no donation had been made to the charity.
Neighbours today told how they watched as the family became "greedy" - undermining the incredible £39million fundraising drive which had led to Captain Tom's knighthood in 2020. Small business owner Sam Barnes said, referencing Captain Tom's charity fundraising during the Covid-19 pandemic, that "it was nice when it happened".
"When it was all going on it was nice for the village," said the 34-year-old, who lives near to the Ingram-Moores in Marston Moretaine, Bedfordshire. "Then we soon realised they were cheating the system somewhere, got greedy early."
But he said he "couldn't really care less any more", adding: "They're not going to go to jail or have to repay it." Retired security officer Dave Miller, 75, said "it's just a shame". "Maybe if she gave half of it to charity or something nobody would be hounding her," he said.
Much of the money is thought to have been ploughed into an illegal luxury spa that built in the Ingram-Moore's garden using the Captain Tom Foundation charity name. The report also reveals that Ingram-Moore, 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.
And the couple gave the charity £8,900 from a Captain 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 Captain Tom's memoir on the understanding a contribution would be made to his charity.
The Ingram-Moores said in a family statement that the book publisher "paid Captain Sir Tom a fee, it was his and he decided what to do with it". They stressed that they "never took a penny" from public donations when Sir Tom raised £38.9 million for NHS charities by walking laps of his garden during the coronavirus lockdown, and that the books were separate.
There was no answer at the Ingram-Moore family home today, with an intercom at the gate ringing through to a voicemail service.