Bogus charity scam in Hook

Someone in Hook has warned me about a scam.

A few days ago, I got one of those charity collection bags through the letterbox. I threw it away without looking at it because I always take my old stuff to the Debra shop in Hook Parade. But someone locally took the trouble of checking one.

Now some of those charity collections are completely genuine - but some are bogus. The offending one is claims to be for a charity called Helping Arms and boasts the charity number 5995054.

Mike Christie checked this out at Companies House and found that the company was registered in Tottenham Court Road, but has subsequently been dissolved. The charity number is false.

I have also checked Helping Arms through Google and you can see that they have a ruling against them by the Advertising Standards Authority, and complaints from other parts of the country.

The problem with bogus charities, apart from the illegality, is that they reduce the supply of second hand clothes to genuine charities.

So do check any bags that come through your door, and if you are at all doubtful don't leave out any goods. We have a number of charity shops in the area, including The Queen Elizabeth Foundation in North Parade, Fara in Tolworth Broadway and Debra in Hook Parade, so the best advice is to take your wearable clothes to one of these. If they cannot be worn again them pop them in your green box where they will go for recycling.

Charity shops, and genuine door to door collections, are a valuable part of the local economy. They help us all to meet the second target in the Reduce - Reuse - Recycle mantra, they provide a source of cheap clothing for those on limited incomes, and they raise funds for important charitable purposes. The last thing we want is to undermine what they do.