Hundreds of runners paid £23 to enter an Edinburgh charity fun run didn't exist
Charities have been left to repair the damage after hundreds of people signed up to take part in a non-existent charity run.
They have been reassuring supporters who fell prey to a suspected scam surrounding a bogus 10k which was due to take place around Arthur’s Seat on Friday, 25 August.
People bought tickets at £23 a head for the She Runs The Night event and pledged to raise cash for a range of charities.
The organisers also got in touch with voluntary groups and urged them to put it on their events schedules and promote it to supporters.
However, the event was never confirmed as paperwork was not filed with Holyrood Park managers Historic Environment Scotland.
She Runs The Night’s organiser William Anderson has now gone to ground and charities have contacted the police.
A message on the event’s website simply reads: “It is with sadness that we have had to pull this event from 2017 calendar”.
It has emerged that a William Anderson was also behind attempts to sell tickets for a non-existent fitness expo at Meadowbank Stadium recently.
Among the charities innocently caught up in the suspected scam are Royal Blind, Emms International and the Cystic Fibrosis Trust.
A spokesperson for the latter said: “We have no official word from the event organisers despite repeated attempts to contact them.
“The Cystic Fibrosis Trust is unable to confirm any rumours regarding the integrity of the event organisers due to lack of response from them.
“Fortunately no one from the cystic fibrosis fundraising community has been affected by this recent event but as a charity that relies heavily on donations from generous members of the community to continue our work to beat cystic fibrosis for good, it is incredibly frustrating when something like this happens.
“We urge anyone thinking of fundraising for us not to be put off by this activity and to check the trust’s website for details on all the exciting ways they can get involved to make a real difference for those living with cystic fibrosis.”
Louise Macleod, head of events at international Christian aid charity Emms International said: “We're encouraging our supporters who've been affected by this fraud to take part in the weekly free park run at Cramond on Saturday 26th. It's a fun timed family friendly run for all ages.
“We can still meet, dress up and run together and something nice can still come of this horrible situation
“We do still encourage people to report the organisers to the police fraud department so they know the full extent of the fraudulent activity.”
A Royal Blind spokesperson said: “We have recently become aware of the issues surrounding this event and have removed it from our events page. We've tried multiple times to contact the organisers but they seem to have vanished.”
TFN understands that people who bought tickets through debit or credit cards can get the cash back through the UK chargeback scheme.
William Anderson was uncontactable.
