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Clothing for 'charity' collection scam exposed
Howard Lake | 8 February 2004 | News
Trading standards officers have stopped a scam in Staffordshire in which people were encouraged to donate clothing purportedly to raise funds for the local air ambulance.
In fact, although leaflets produced by the rogue door-to-door trader claimed “for every ton of clothing collected your local air ambulance will receive £100,” the ambulance did not benefit.
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Stafford County Council seized hundreds of bags of clothes donated by people in response to the “appeal.” According to the BBC, the trader responsible “has been contacted and warned off” by the Council.
A spokesman at Staffordshire’s Air Ambulance confirmed the collection had nothing to do with the organisation.
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About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.