UK

The Captain Tom Foundation says it has stopped taking donations amid an ongoing investigation into the charity.

In a statement, the foundation said it had also closed all payment channels while the probe remains open.

The announcement comes amid a statutory inquiry by the Charity Commission over concerns about the charity’s management and independence from the late veteran’s family.

The charity was set up in honour of Captain Sir Tom Moore, a 100-year-old war veteran who raised £39m for NHS Charities Together by walking 100 laps of his garden in April 2020.

Capt Sir Tom, who became a national hero and was personally knighted by the Queen for his efforts, died in February 2021.

The charity’s statement comes after planning bosses ordered an unauthorised building in Captain Tom’s daughter’s home be demolished, after plans for a block containing a spa pool were rejected.

Hannah Ingram-Moore and her husband Colin applied in 2021 for permission to build a Captain Tom Foundation Building in the grounds of their home in Marston Moretaine, Bedfordshire.

Plans for the site said it would be used partly “in connection with The Captain Tom Foundation and its charitable objectives”.

Central Bedfordshire accepted the plans. However, the authority refused a retrospective application in 2022, for a larger building, containing a spa pool.

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Plans described it as “a new building for use by the occupiers” of the home of Mr and Mrs Ingram-Moore and it was referred to as “The Captain Tom Building”.

The council spokesperson said: “An enforcement notice requiring the demolition of the now-unauthorised building was issued and this is now subject to an appeal to the Planning Inspectorate.”

A spokesperson for The Captain Tom Foundation said: “At this moment in time, the sole focus of The Captain Tom Foundation is to ensure that it cooperates fully with the ongoing Statutory Inquiry by the Charity Commission.

“As a result, The Captain Tom Foundation is not presently actively seeking any funding from donors.

“Accordingly, we have also taken the decision to close all payment channels whilst the Statutory Inquiry remains open.”

The charity said it would be in a “better position” to “make a decision in relation to its future” once it had received the findings of the inquiry.

A spokesman for the Charity Commission has said it will not comment while the inquiry is ongoing.

The commission opened a case into the charity in March 2021, a month after the veteran’s death, and expanded it into a statutory inquiry in June last year.