IT WAS a scene which would have befit a textbook SAS manœuvre. After the initial blast of stun grenades, balaclava-clad armed personnel, complete with breathing apparatus, were seen abseiling down the Tower buildings, kicking through thick glass windows and bailing into the Shop for Heroes HQ; the laser sight of their Heckler and Koch MP5s cutting through the tear gas as they hunted for the criminal element inside.
Within just a few minutes the siege was over as a bedraggled Cllr Julian Mineur was hustled out with a sack over his head and bundled into a waiting van, to be taken to the airport where he was to be drugged and thrown aboard a private plane set for a remote part of Eastern Europe. Once there he would be forced by any means necessary to admit his follies.
Okay, so none of that actually happened. But police have raided the now-infamous Shop for Heroes and arrested Mr Mineur on suspicion of fraud by misrepresentation (presumably of a charity). He has been bailed.
Of course, whilst his reputation will be damaged no matter what happens after this point, Mr Mineur will be cleared of all wrongdoing in due course. Why am I so sure about that?
It seems the main issue people, including myself, have with this shop is that it was in their opinion operating under pretence of being associated with Help for Heroes. Well, they changed the name to counter that assumption.
We know that Shop for Heroes is a Community Interest Company (CIC) which means that its primary activity must in some way benefit the community. People assume that the donations they give to Shop for Heroes will go into community projects, or more simply, to pay for things that benefit veterans. Wrong.
According to the 41 page Companies House documentation that was submitted in August by Cllr Julian Mineur and Cllr Jim Houldsworth, the community benefit provided by Shop for Heroes is the mere presence of the shop and the activities it carries out on site.
Form CIC 36, Section B: Community Interest Statement – Activities and Related Benefit
Activities: tell us what the company is being set up to do
Mainly using a shop on the High Street, we will offer information, training, advice and guidance to veterans and their families on a variety of issues that affect them
We will also promote our cause using events, exhibitions, merchandise.
We will also go into education establishments to allow the students to be more informed about the armed forces, veterans and situations they can find themselves in.
How will the activity benefit the community?
The presence of a shop in the town will allow people to access easily on a one-to-one, face-to-face basis the information they need. Many of the people we will support fail to access all they are entitled to because of the procedures they have to go through currently with other agencies. We will also signpost to other ‘helper’ agencies that offer support. This can be done in a very hands-on, supportive manner, rather than just over a telephone.
The presence of the shop also gives the general population more information and insight into the armed forces and veterans in particular. We will also go into prisons to work with veterans before they are released to give them a supportive pathway once released.
Activities: tell us what the company is being set up to do
We will operate a hostel to support the more needy veterans who find themselves homeless.
How will the activity benefit the community?
The benefit will be to offer accommodation, as well as training, support and a general ‘moving on’ ethos. This will alleviate the number of homeless veterans in the country, and will also reintegrate them into mainstream society.
And at the bottom, it says;
If the company makes any surplus it will be used for re-investing in the company.
Therefore, it seems there is no question to answer regarding the £30,000. Or is there?
Will we ever get to discover how much of the £30,000 was raised BEFORE it became a CIC?
Also how much a week did the CIC earn/raise during the weeks that the Cllr was paid £250 a week?
Is he still being paid £250 a week during this investigation?
Oh! Wonderful Phil the One.
Don’t you think the police know what you expound before charging? I see you omitted the theft charge!
The authorities must have sufficient evidence to charge for them to have done so.
I would still like the minutes of the special meeting on Monday 20th December 2010 to be made public. What is being concealed? If a member of the largest service charity in the country cannot read the minutes, who can?
I know this has nothing to do with anything on the topic but I need to say it anyway. Merry Xmas to everyone on Philtheone. I’m off to work soon and working tommorow so I thought i’d say it now while i’ve got chance.
MERRY XMAS EVERYONE!!!
and you TB, cheers!
So the potential to scam a grateful public who thought they were donating to Help for Heroes has been averted/curtailed!!
I find the play on words and the involvement of what I hope very soon to be ex councillors very distasteful.
I am also a RBL member and have donated to both them and H4H over the last year. Thankfully none of it was through this shop.
Have they been found guilty of anything yet?
No smoke without fire as they say..
Take that and a very tenuous link to a successful and established charity with maybe an intention to deceive with the name (unethical at best, fraud at worst) and it certainly raises a number of pertinent questions.
Add in the stated aims and what seems to be a very large surplus (which may or may not be in breach of charity commission rules) and you have the basis for a Police investigation.
What made the feckwit think he was worth £250 a week anyway?
A grand a month before tax surly that isn’t extortionate for a shop manager.
As for the rest I do see your point but that also can be explain by them being complete fuck wits with no idea of finance and as they are Blackpool councillors I can believe that.