Bogus Charity Collectors in our Neighbourhoods?
The problem of bogus charity bag collectors has been around for some years, but recently there has been an increase in activity and they seem to be better organised. City of London Police have now started a project to pull together information from all police forces and also from registered charities and new guidance has been issued to police to try and gain more information about this fraud.
Over the past year I have received numerous messages from NHW in regard to possible bogus charity bag collections so can I advise the following to help in dealing with either callers at your door or bags pushed through your letterboxes or left on the doorstep for clothing collection.
Registered Companies
Often the people involved sometimes well presented, claim to work for a charity or they will donate a portion of the proceeds to a registered charity, and some even produce important looking Identity Cards and the collection bags bear the logo of their 'chosen' charity. Checks have shown that in many cases they are registered with Companies House but this does not mean that they are a charity. The easiest way to find out if the organisation is a genuine charity is to log onto the Charity Commission - via their website - www.charity-commission.gov.uk or their helpline 0845 300 0218 during working hours. Just quote the charity name or enter the registered number in the search panel. of the website.
Most of the collectors who go from door to door supply their own bags purporting to be a charity. If they are not registered with the Charity Commission it is highly unlikely that they are a genuine charity, even if they claim to be registered in another country.
Police need to know if bogus collectors are working in an area - please report anything suspicious to the police on 0845 456 4564 it needs logging and an incident number given.
Any information about vehicle registrations and descriptions of collectors is really useful.
Carol Aston
Crime Reduction Officer
Safer Peterborough Team
Cambridgeshire Police
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NEIGHBOURHOOD POLICING TEAM
NEIGHBOURHOOD POLICING TEAM NP Sergeant: SIMON GOLDSMITH Tel: NEW NON EMERGENCY NUMBER 101 NP Constables: Rob Giffen, Neil Fraser & Matt Marchbank PSCOs': Shirley Beswick, Stuart Craig, Tina Griffin, Mohammed Haleem, Tania Weston, David Holland & Lloyd Ledgister.
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Even though the problem has been around for some time, I still find it hard to believe that people who take charity bags, that are intended to go and help other people. I am glad that the police forces are working together to help tackle this issue.
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