Hi all, I hope I'm posting this in the right forum topic.
My family have been fundraising to raise money for my 15 yr old nephew, last year he was diagnosed with a rare form of sarcoma cancer and as a result lost his leg, he had rotationplasty surgery. We've been raising the money to buy him a specialist prosthetic leg, as the one provided by the NHS is heavy and while he can walk, his mobility is limited and all he wants to do is run again.
We approached a number of local businesses to ask for donations, and the local community has been a fantastic in helping. One company wanted to help, but wasn't able to help us without a registered charity number. We were offered the use of a charity number from a small local charity set up to raise sarcoma awareness, which we gratefully accepted.
The head of this charity travelled to the company with his son, and received a cheque of £300. This money was intended for DN, but because of the company's policies, it was put in the name of the charity. While he was there, the head of the charity had his photograph taken with his son, being presented the cheque. DS (DN's mother) was not told that the money was given, and was not notified of the presentation.
We had forgotten about the company for a while, as we were busy organising different events, but when we did remember(about 4 weeks later) my DM called the company to enquire about the donation they had pledged. They told her that the head of the charity had arrived with DN's "father", and they had given the cheque for £300. Of course, this was not DBIL but the charity head's own son - whether or not he intended to pass him off as DN's father or this was just a misunderstanding from the company, we're not sure.
Getting to the point, it is now 5 months since the cheque was presented to the charity and we've tried chasing up the charity owner but he keeps giving us excuses. He had said in May he would sort it at the AGM in June, as it had to go through the charity committee and treasurers, etc. June came and went, and we heard nothing. DBIL messaged him at the start of July, and he fobbed him off, saying he'd get back to him the following week. It didn't happen.
This evening, a close family friend got in touch with the charity owner, saying that we were gathering all outstanding donations as we're very close to our goal, and asked about the donation from the company. He was told by the owner that the charity AGM was being held tonight and that he would pass on his request to the committee! Surely an AGM is an annual meeting, as in, once a year?
They whole thing stinks, we're incredibly fustrated by the whole thing - the fact that the owner didn't tell us he'd received the donation, the fact that he keeps putting off forwarding the money. The company themselves have confirmed with us that the donation was intended for my nephew.
Does anyone know if we have any legal standing on this? We're not sure as the cheque was written to his charity, and their charity number was used. Would what he has done be considered fraud? Is there anywhere we could report this? Would there be any point? We're starting to feel like giving up, but it's frustrating knowing that the money was for a disabled teenager and this charity has kept it!