Children’s Charity Fraudster Walks Free
Charity News Online
The parents of two blind children in Great Britain were outraged as they learned that a man who embezzled charity cash was given community service. Club entertainer Thomas "Tam" Harris was hired to perform at charity shows to raise cash for the Saul and Savannah-Rose Fraser Trust. The four-year-olds suffer from the rare infantile Battens disease - an incurable deterioration of the brain and nervous system.
But after the gigs, 62-year old Harris failed to hand over the money raised to the parents of the youngsters, who are now blind and bed-ridden in their Dundee home. Harris, whose former band was called Bad Pennies and who had a Top 10 hit in Australia, appeared at the city's sheriff court Thursday, Daily Record News reports. The performer, of Finavon Place, Dundee, admitted embezzling £1000 between October 30 and December 31, 2004, at four venues in the city while playing with his band, Freddie And The Stars. He was sentenced to 150 hours of community service and ordered to repay £1000 plus £75 in interest.
But the twins' mother Alana, 34, blasted Sheriff GrantMcCulloch. She said: "I am so angry that the sheriff let him off and believed his sad story. I'm totally shocked by how he's got off. It is a bad joke. We're just back from the USA where the twins were being treated and we could be doing without this stress."
The court heard how Harris had volunteered to promote the charity and collected £1000. But when the founders approached him for the money, he admitted that he had "stupidly" taken £1000 from the kids' fund. He claimed he had only borrowed it to pay his band and that he had every intention of repaying it.
charity,charity fraud,Battens disease
Charity News Online
The parents of two blind children in Great Britain were outraged as they learned that a man who embezzled charity cash was given community service. Club entertainer Thomas "Tam" Harris was hired to perform at charity shows to raise cash for the Saul and Savannah-Rose Fraser Trust. The four-year-olds suffer from the rare infantile Battens disease - an incurable deterioration of the brain and nervous system.
But after the gigs, 62-year old Harris failed to hand over the money raised to the parents of the youngsters, who are now blind and bed-ridden in their Dundee home. Harris, whose former band was called Bad Pennies and who had a Top 10 hit in Australia, appeared at the city's sheriff court Thursday, Daily Record News reports. The performer, of Finavon Place, Dundee, admitted embezzling £1000 between October 30 and December 31, 2004, at four venues in the city while playing with his band, Freddie And The Stars. He was sentenced to 150 hours of community service and ordered to repay £1000 plus £75 in interest.
But the twins' mother Alana, 34, blasted Sheriff GrantMcCulloch. She said: "I am so angry that the sheriff let him off and believed his sad story. I'm totally shocked by how he's got off. It is a bad joke. We're just back from the USA where the twins were being treated and we could be doing without this stress."
The court heard how Harris had volunteered to promote the charity and collected £1000. But when the founders approached him for the money, he admitted that he had "stupidly" taken £1000 from the kids' fund. He claimed he had only borrowed it to pay his band and that he had every intention of repaying it.
charity,charity fraud,Battens disease
posted by Lisa Vronskaya at 12:15 PM
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