A man faces a considerable jail sentence after he admitted to defrauding £300,000 from the Help for Heroes charity. He set up teams of people collecting money from supermarkets, provided military vehicles with military livery, and paid the collectors expenses while they took money from shoppers over a period of 18 months. During this period, however, he did not send the money to the Help for Heroes charity and instead put it into his personal bank accounts.
The Help for Heroes charity raises funds that it uses to help Soldiers and those that have served in the Armed Forces but have been injured or are no longer able to serve. They utilise a number of tactics to help raise funds, including the use of collection buckets at local supermarkets and appeals for regular donations. It was the collection buckets that caught the attention of Christopher Copeland.
Between 1 February 2010 and 17 September 2011, Copeland organised teams of people to collect money from shoppers in and outside shopping centres. Copeland paid expenses to the collectors, who would spend three or four days at a time collecting while staying in a vehicle provided by Copeland or in a local hotel. Copeland had a fleet of former military vehicles that were decorated with the Help for Heroes livery.
A genuine Help for Heroes collector first alerted the charity to what was going on, and the Income Protection department then reported the incident to the police. Copeland is being accused of stealing the money, which prosecutors claim he had no intention of handing to the charity, and putting it straight into his personal bank accounts. Police found that the collectors operated on at least 15 separate occasions over the 18 month period, and that Copeland took a total of more than £300,000 as a result of his actions.
Copeland’s lawyer has said that he and his family have faced serious threats since the story hit the news, and he has now been bailed until 15th September when he will face sentencing. Experts believe that the emotive nature of stealing from charities, as well as the calculated method of fraud involved, will lead to a considerable prison sentence for the Devonshire man.