News In Focus
23 December 2008
OSCR wants to close legal loophole
The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator is to write to the Scottish Government asking for a legal loophole to be closed, in a bid to stop people without licences collecting for charity.
OSCR was set up in 2006 after a number of cases where substantial sums of money were raised for charities, but few funds were handed over. One such case in 2004 involved Bruno Schultz, who was said to have raised £300,000 a year for the Moonbeams charity for sick children, but delivered only £70,000 to the charity. It has now been revealed that two companies he runs claim to have raised nearly £1.75 million for children with cancer, but only £22,500 of this appears to have been contributed to charity.
As the companies – which were wound up after an inquiry by the Insolvency Service – were run as private firms and not charities, they were not regulated by OSCR and were able to raise money in door-to-door collections without a licence.
Jane Ryder, OSCR’s chief executive, said the exact status of companies asking for donations needed to be made clear to the public. People should ask collectors outright if they were working for a charity.
Any literature distributed by charities must display the charity's name and Scottish charity number.