The Grounds for my Appeal to the Charity Tribunal included the following:

Routine Dishonesty

Deliberate untruths were told to the Commission and Melton Mowbray County Court. Malicious lies were told by ‘the Town Estate’ about Sue Gowans to have her removed from the Board. Malicious lies were told by Messrs. Saunders, Simmonds and Whitehouse as evidence to suspend me.

Minutes were falsified and manipulated – for Board meetings and Annual Town Meetings

The 2008 annual meeting refused nomination of John Wyatt in defiance of specific Commission advice. The 2008 and 2009 Annual Reports included false statements and misleading information and there were important omissions, some legally required. The file and Building Society passbook in respect of the Fundraising Appeal were retained secretly by trustee John Southerington, denying trustees any sight of the records of an important charity asset. The ‘majority’ apparently thought that acceptable despite Mr. Southerington’s record - he had previously been Senior Townwarden, had grossly mismanaged the charity, had concealed financial records, secretly spent Permanent Endowment and caused £60,000 indebtedness. Mr. Southerington had also received an income from the charity, a breach of trust described as ‘objectionable’ by the Commission.

The Building Society account was opened without Board authority and untrue information was provided to the Society.

Trustee Derek Whitehouse received donations from the charity of £16,573 in breach of trust - he was a trustee and such donations contravened the governing document. The 2009 Annual ‘(non) Elections’ for trustees were dishonest from beginning to end, contravening the Governing Document and specific Commission ‘advice’ given four times by the Commission. Chairman Ken Saunders refused to allow me to stand for election.

 

Female trustees were driven from the Board

Sue Gowans was a Trustee from October 2005 and I was a Trustee from October 2007 and we were driven from the Town Estate in October 2009. We had been verbally abused, shouted at, physically threatened, locked out, sexually harassed, subjected to a dishonest court case and several kangaroo courts, generally excluded, lied about including lies told to the Commission, dishonestly censured, denied charity information and not allowed to fulfil trustee duties, and there was a dishonest attempt to suspend me. Chairman Ken Saunders chose not to hold 2009 elections but placed five men of his choice on the Board. He ensured I could not be elected and that there would be no female trustees.

 

Management/Mismanagement of the Charity including Inadequate Governance

The charity had appeared to be well run but In October 2007 I unexpectedly discovered, behind the scenes, inadequate governance with no strategies, policies and procedures relating to management of the charity. There was no ‘CRB checking’ policy despite a history of Town Estate paedophilia. There was also a surprising lack of understanding of very basic legal issues relating to management of an important charity with substantial assets and a large income, much of it cash. Within months, the way I was treated, ensured I could not be effective. But not completely silenced, I continued to press for introduction of policies. When I ceased as a trustee in October 2009, governance was still inadequate and there had been no training. The Board of trustees was not in control of Town Estate finance. Policies had been adopted which contravened the Governing Document; others were misleading and/or contained mistakes. The charity was still lacking policies including ‘essentials.