Gang await sentencing
Gangsters stole £500,000 from charities in a decade-long scam posing as charity collectors.
The bogus fundraisers operated in supermarkets in Scotland and England from 2011 to 2021.
Using T-shirts, logos and marketing material from Children in Need, Great Ormond Street Hospital and the Children’s Society that they requested from the charities, the gang posed as legitimate collectors duping the public out of hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Preston Crown Court heard that David Levi, 49, a convicted conman, claimed that he ran a legitimate fundraising business and relied on disability benefits and an inheritance from his father.
However it merged he paid the rent on his flat in Lytham St Annes, Lancs, in cash and splashed out on business-class flights to Australia and a Hummer that he imported from America.
In 2015, he paid £12,500 for a 28-night stay at a luxury villa in Australia, with a further £10,500 for flights with Emirates.
When asked to account for the money he spent, Levi claimed he was working as an escort but was too embarrassed to declare the money to HMRC, and had inherited £100,000 in cash from his father.
Assisting him in the office was Kaysha Beck, 31, who helped set up the charity collections in store. She contacted supermarkets claiming the collections had been authorised by the store's community champions.
Also involved in the scam were Howard Collins, 73, who helped organise collections and went out collecting. He introduced a number of people to GOSH and wrote letters claiming to be from the North of England Events Office - which did not exist.
William Ormand went out collecting, but the court heard that he was also involved in paying other collectors and appears to have assisted Levi. Martin Ebanks, 59, Robert Roy Ferguson, 63, and Stephen Chesterman, 63, also collected for the conspiracy.
Richard Atkins KC, prosecuting, said: “In essence it involved the defendants collecting monies from the public under the guise that the monies collected would all be handed over to the charities whose logos were being displayed.
“The reality was that only a fraction of the monies handed over by members of the public ever reached the charities. The majority of the money was pocketed by the defendants.
“In some instances it is obvious that monies were only deposited with the charities following a police intervention or other enquiry - obviously as a smokescreen.”
Levi pleaded guilty to fraud and transferring criminal property in connection with the Children in Need conspiracy, fraud in connection with the MIND and Children's Society conspiracies, and fraud while on bail for the Children in Need conspiracy.
Beck pleaded guilty to fraud and transferring criminal property in connection with the Children in Need conspiracy.
Ebanks pleaded guilty to fraud in connection with the Children in Need conspiracy and the Children's Society conspiracy, on the basis that he was involved from November 2017 to July 2017. He joined an existing conspiracy and was drawn n by Levi, making £60,000.
The prosecution agreed that if he paid £60,000.00 by way of compensation prior to sentence that we would not seek to proceed with a Proceeds of Crime Act application.
Collins pleaded guilty to fraud and transferring criminal property in connection with the GOSH conspiracy and fraud in connection with the Christie Fund conspiracy.
Chesterman pleaded guilty to fraud in connection to the GOSH conspiracy. He agreed to pay back £90,000 to avoid proceeds of crime proceedings.
Ferguson pleaded guilty to fraud and transferring criminal property in connection with the GOSH conspiracy.
Ormand was convicted of fraud and transferring criminal property in connection with the Children in Need conspiracy, and fraud in connection with the GOSH and Children's Society conspiracies.
