Clothes Aid are encouraging householders across Scotland to give away their unwanted clothes or shoes in order to help children in danger or distress. Collection bags will be delivered to householders across the country in order to raise funds for the NSPCC’s ChildLine service in Scotland.
NSPCC Scotland fundraising manager
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Clothes Aid, the UK’s largest commercial clothing collector on behalf of charities, is looking to partner schools across London and Scotland to raise funds as it launches its schools campaign to collect the nation’s unwanted clothes, starting this month.
Clothes Aid is offering schools the choice between raising funds for
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Press statement
Wednesday 15 February 2012
Make-A-Wish urges the public to avoid the rising ‘cash for clothes’ market
In response to the report yesterday morning on BBC Breakfast detailing how more and more people are choosing to sell bags of unwanted clothes instead of donating them to charity,
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January 2012: A huge thank you goes to the Iglesia Ni Cristo congregations at Battersea Arts Centre, London, and Granfers Community Centre, Sutton, Surrey, on Sunday 29th January for collecting over 200 bags of clothes which will go as a donation to the NSPCC.
An INC GIVING representative said: "It was a real buzz of
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Clothes Aid would like to report that a three-year custodial sentence has been handed out for charity bag theft in the case of Arnas Gasuinas, who was sentenced on four counts of handling stolen goods at Basildon Crown Court, Essex, on 23 December 2011.
The original arrests were made in Rainham, Essex, in October 2010 where
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Further to arrests that were made in Rainham, Essex, in October 2010, Clothes Aid is extremely pleased to announce that a custodial sentence has been handed out through the Crown Prosecution Service.
The Metropolitan Police originally arrested six men in Rainham in October 2010 but it was felt at the time that there was not enough evidence to bring the perpetrators of the crimes to justice.
The Metropolitan Police has been able to appeal to the Crown Prosecution Service after more evidence was submitted by Clothes Aid and, further to a Crown Court Case on 31 October 2011 after seven men had been re-arrested, there have been convictions on the case. One of the men will be receiving a custodial sentence on 28th November 2011.
One of the interesting parts of the case is that various police authorities have had to work together to bring the men to justice, spanning arrests around the country, a sign that the nature of the collections and operations come under the banner of ‘organised crime’.
“We work extremely hard with police authorities around the country to help them crack down on this type of crime,” says Michael Lomotey, Business Manager, Clothes Aid. “The crime of stealing clothes destined for charity has become higher profile with police authorities, local authorities’ trading standards officers and the legal system starting to understand where people can be prosecuted. We need this to continue if we are to stamp out this type of crime. It has been described lately by one police authority as ‘heinous’ and that is absolutely right. People need to know that the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau and the Charity Fraud Desk is making in-roads into stopping systematic stealing.”
Detective Sergeant John Kirby, who led the investigation for Havering police, said: "A haul of this size proves that the defendant had been operating in an organised manner for some time. The clothes were stolen from doorsteps and registered charity clothes bins with a view to sell them on in Eastern Europe. This man was not only duping generous homeowners who took the time to donate their clothes but was also robbing charities of an essential form of income. Today's result proves how seriously we have taken this crime and we hope it will deter others from stealing from registered charities."
Clothes Aid gives the following advice for people wanting to donate to charity from their doorstep:
• Always look for the Fundraising Standard Board’s (FRSB) ‘Give with Confidence’ tick logo
• Look for a registered charity number and, if in doubt, check on the Charity Commission website: http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk
• Look for a landline number and try calling the number. Clothes Aid’s Helpline answers over 20,000 calls each year and is open Monday to Friday 9am-5pm: 08450 722 780
• Legally, charity bags must say how much they will give to charity per tonne. This is another notification on charity bags of which to take note
Clothes Aid has recently celebrated raising over £2m for the NSPCC and works with nine charities around the UK in total. “We raise over £1.4m for our charities per year,” says Michael Lomotey. “Anyone stealing clothes destined for charity is directly taking away money that should be going to charitable causes.”
For more information, please contact: Jo Moulds, Press & PR Officer, Clothes Aid, on 020 7288 8538, 07968 801467 or jmoulds@clothesaid.co.uk.
NOTES TO EDITORS:
• Clothes Aid is a fully-licensed fundraiser compliant with all UK Charity Commission regulations concerning the collection and sale of used clothing
• Clothes Aid works very closely with police from various authorities, other legitimate clothing collection companies and partner charities to crack down on bogus collectors and sits on the City of London Police’s resource desk
• Look for the “Give with Confidence‟ tick of approval from the Fundraising Standards Board (FRSB) on leaflets and bags. Reputable clothing collection businesses and genuine charities are likely to be members of the Fundraising Standards Board, an independent self-regulatory body for UK fundraising, backed by the Office for Civil Society, The Scottish Government and the Welsh Assembly Government. The FRSB tick is now seen by the public 50 million times a year. It is the stamp of reassurance for members of the public thinking of donating to charity
Find out more about how your old clothes help our charity partners across the UK.
If you are a school, academy, college or university looking to fundraise through a clothes collections, click here.
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