CharityBags - www.charitybags.org.uk - information on misleading charity clothing collections, and how to deal with them

CharityBags www.CharityBags.org.uk

Maintenance - roadworks sign - 'Men (and women) at work' (or a person opening an umbrella?)

Recent changes to the website include . . .
Expanded/updated page: List of prosecutions of collectors - including Caerphilly, East Northants, Nuneaton (pending)
New article: Fake collection leaflets, bags and impersonation
New page: Misuse of ".org.uk" web addresses (domain names)
Expanded article: Alan Stanton on flickr: clothing collection leaflets
New articles: Statistics Plain English Company information

New page: List of organisations and resources (can be sorted)
- 365+ annotated entries - including websites, statistics, laws, articles, reports, key facts.
- new sections on Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland.
- the list (a table) can be sorted A-Z - or by subject (classified), and can be filtered.

A-Z of collectors: New section: "Treating Children with Cancer" (TCWC)
- a controversial (misleading) small new charity (based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire)

New article: Councils' diaries of collection licences - eg Bedford, Blackpool, Brentwood, Broadland, Doncaster, Mid Devon, Runnymede, Southampton, Tandridge (Surrey), Three Rivers (Herts), Warwick, West Lancs, Wigan Councils

Expanded and improved the A-Z List of clothing collectors page (now 265 entries)

Prosecutions of collectors page: Added more prosecutions done by NW Leics Council
Added an 'at-a-glance' summary list of prosecutions (a 6-column table)
Added a new section: "Other interceptions of collectors" (eg Worcester, Tandridge)

Councils' registers of licences page: Revised and expanded the page;
- added the registers of Ashford, Portsmouth, Tunbridge Wells and Sevenoaks councils

. . . See the WHAT'S NEW page for details

UPDATE - Latest news on Air ambulance clothing collection scams :
19 Oct 2011: ASA upheld a complaint   about a leaflet from E&N Textiles Ltd (AAS)

2 Nov 2011: High Court hearing (London) to wind up :
Air Ambulance Support Community Interest Company (CIC) =AASCIC
St Anthony Repatriation Ltd (formerly "Air Ambulance Service" =AAS )
St Anthony (Trading Co) Ltd (formerly Air Ambulance Service (Trading Co) Ltd)
All three companies were wound up (=closed down).
See Government press release (by 'Company Investigations' of the Insolvency Service)
So ANY collections purporting to be by these companies are now ILLEGAL.

2 Nov 2011: Magistrates Court hearing: Kirklees Council's prosecution of unlicensed charitable collectors (Air Ambulance Support CIC =AASCIC) using the 1939 Act.
Adjourned until 30 Dec 2011, then to early 2012

8 Nov: Walton Air Ambulance Support "charity" shop (Essex) - fraud trial postponed

2 Dec 2011: Bracknell Magistrates Court (Berks)  : Anthony Joseph Durkin, owner of "Air Ambulance Service", pleaded guilty to 9 offences (Consumer Protection Regulations)

see page on "Air Ambulance Service", AAS (Trading Co) Ltd and E&N Textiles Ltd
see page on "Air Ambulance Support CIC" and Air Ambulance Recycling Ltd
see Keith Kondakor's entries on Facebook   and YouTube

Logo of www.airambulanceservice.org.uk =Air Ambulance Service / St Anthony Repatriation Ltd (clothing collection scam)

How to stop a bogus collection . . .
When you get a suspicious collection leaflet or bag, look at it carefully and refer to :
A-Z list of collectors A-Z selection of collectors Law on collections
How to tell: is the leaflet 'genuine'? Fake collection leaflets Is it 'charitable'? - does it need a licence? Licensing: enforcement

If you think it's bogus and/or unlicensed, immediately telephone the "authorities" (the regulators) :

your local council's licensing department
Refer them to the "House to House Collections Act 1939" (the "1939 Act")
Ask them if it's been licensed. If it's not licensed and it's 'charitable', they can stop it.
your council's trading standards (via 'Consumer Direct') - refer them to the "Consumer Protection Regulations 2008" (and the "1939 Act").
the police - mention the two laws above - the police can assist the council(s).
Also, the police may be able to take action using the "Fraud Act 2006".

hover to ENLARGE

They can intercept the bag collectors in your area on the collection day (a couple of days later) :

the collectors can be interviewed - and the van can be searched
the collectors can be arrested (depending on the circumstances)
the bags of clothes can be seized (and given to local charity shops)
in some cases the van can be seized
the collectors (and/or the 'promoters') can be prosecuted and fined

Some councils (eg NW Leicestershire Council) have successfully prosecuted collectors just for delivering the leaflets or bags (='promoting' a collection) - using the 1939 Act.

Each year in the UK, over £10 million income is lost by genuine charities because of poor-value, misleading and bogus house-to-house 'charity' clothing collections

CharityBags campaigns to reduce this problem . . .

Raise 10 pence or £3?
Two charity clothing collections - one raised £3 a bag for charity ... the other donated only 10 pence to charity for the SAME bag of clothes

If you receive a door-to-door clothing collection leaflet - who should you contact to check it out? - your local council licensing dept? trading standards? police? Charity Commission? ASA? - See the Regulators page

Oxfam charity shop (image courtesy of Oxfam charity)

SALE ! M&S coats now only £7 ... Latest novels 80% off ... CDs and DVDs only £1.99
- Pick up a bargain in a charity shop - and help raise money for good causes. There are now over 7,000 charity shops in the UK

All change! - 2006 saw the start of major changes in charity law ... including the rules for licensing of charity collections (which date back to 1916 and 1939)

Law - All charitable clothing collections need a licence from the local council (or approval from the Cabinet Office) - check out the rules in the House to House Collections Act 1939

Choices - "I've got some unwanted clothes etc - Should I give them to house-to-house clothing collections or take them to a recycling centre or take them to a charity shop?"

The Charity Commission's report on door-to-door clothing collections reveals a disturbing picture of many commercial clothing collectors misleading the public

Recycling is worthwhile, but donating your unwanted goods to a charity shop for RE-USE can be 100 times better for the environment

Bogus charity collectors fined - an unlicensed house-to-house clothing collection in Northamptonshire led to a prosecution by the district council licensing department

The rules for house-to-house clothing collections vary slightly depending on where you live in the UK - find out how they affect you

Bogus charity clothing collections by 'Gotham' were featured on BBC1 TV's Watchdog programme - the leaflets alleged the goods went to charity shops in Lithuania

The Charity Commission's Register lists 180,000 charities in England and Wales - such as Oxfam, RSPCA, Age UK, Salvation Army, NSPCC, Scope, The Children's Society, Cancer Research, Breakthrough Breast Cancer, BHF

A-ZThe A-Z list of clothing collectors includes 30 which have been the subject of complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) - misleading leaflets and bags

See the DROP-DOWN MENUS (top of most pages) for a full list of the pages on our website

We welcome your comments - see contact us

Search every word on the CharityBags site using the search box at the bottom of most pages

CharityBags
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See List of organisations and resources - with abbreviations, links and useful printed reference sources. You can sort it A-Z and by subject...

Misleading charitable house-to-house clothing collection leaflet (Rutex Ltd) Third world clothing collection - Please help those who really need your support

Above: misleading collection leaflet

The Scams and cons page - offers advice on how to avoid being ripped off - including links to Consumer Direct's "Watch out!" scams guide and SafeFromScams.co.uk

Textile recycling is a sizeable industry in the UK. The value of second-hand clothes has risen dramatically - to over £700 per tonne. Most are exported (especially to Eastern Europe and Africa). But far more money would be raised for charities if the clothes went to charity shops . . .

Around 500 UK charity shops accept mains-powered electrical goods, testing them before sale - such as computers, TVs, hifi, radios and gadgets. Some even take fridges & cookers . . .

'A selection of collectors A-Z' : . . . This page has over 50 images of collection leaflets and bags - plus comments
Please send us more scanned
copies of leaflets and bags ...

?HOW TO TELL - is a clothing collection leaflet or bag genuine? - a checklist

Cardiff Council prosecuted E&C Export Ltd for carrying out a charitable clothes collection without a licence, using the 'House to House Collections Act 1939'

Parliament and politicians :
At last, MPs are talking tough about bogus 'charitable' clothing collections - but many regulators are ignoring these concerns

Licensing of collections under the 1939 Act :
Monitoring and enforcement are crucial. But fewer than 1 in 10,000 (!) illegal clothing collections is prosecuted . . .

A brief history of clothing collections - a timeline : This page gives key events and dates - eg new laws, TV & radio programmes

Clothing collections really are a matter of "life and death" - it's now thought that people have died unnecessarily or sustained avoidable permanent injuries - because of the nationwide Air Ambulance scams in 2010 & 2011 - they stole £200,000++ from hard-pressed genuine charities such as Midlands Air Ambulance . . .

In memory of V who died in 2011
Flower

our email address (image) :