Former publican is jailed for ‘wicked’ charity theft

Richard Skipper was landlord of The Plough Inn when he arranged several coffee mornings over a period of years to raise funds for Macmillan Cancer Support UK. But of the five events that took place, he sent the money from only one of them to the charity.

Skipper, 56, of Le Tour Beauregard, Tower Hill, St Peter Port, who stood in the 2020 General Election, polling 5,529 votes and finishing 51st, admitted four counts of stealing when he appeared in the Magistrate’s Court.

One of these included an event where funds raised were to be shared between Macmillan and Les Bourgs Hospice.

A patron of the pub had asked Skipper to raise funds for the hospice in memory of his late wife.

After the event, Skipper posted about its success on the pub’s social media page, saying that it had raised a total of £557, of which Les Bourgs was going to receive £357 and Macmillan the balance.

The patron contacted Les Bourgs a few months later, asking if he could have a copy of the thank-you letter for the funds raised so he could show family members.

The charity said it had never received that donation.

Les Bourgs pursued the funds from Skipper but was given various excuses, including that it had been entrusted to a joint director of the pub.

Skipper later said that he would no longer be raising funds for the charity because it had not respected the content of his emails. At this point the charity reported the matter to the police.

Skipper told police that he had sent all of the funds raised to Macmillan, but that charity told officers that since the pub had run its annual coffee morning, it had received money only once.

It was owed a total of £1,150 from all four events.

Les Bourgs later received a cheque for £900, which Skipper said represented all the money he owed – including proceeds from a darts tournament the pub had staged. But this was a substantial overpayment, and Skipper said it was compensation for not paying sooner.

But he had not paid anything of the money he owed to Macmillan.

Advocate David Domaille said Skipper had sent a number of apologies to the people affected but not all had been accepted.

In hindsight he had said he should have given some of the money sent to Les Bourgs to Macmillan.

He was someone who was held in high regard in the community and he accepted that he had well and truly failed them.

The probation report said the offences arose out of financial difficulties that Skipper was

facing and that he was in serious debt.

Several letters of reference before the court spoke of his good character and good work that he had done for his church and some 30 different charities.

Since the offences had come to light he had suffered abuse both on social media and in public, where he had been spat at.

He was assessed as having a low likelihood of reoffending and going through the court process had had a salutary effect. He had not sought to justify his actions and had expressed regret and remorse.

Skipper had asked for and was receiving support from the Caring for Ex-Offenders group.

Judge Graeme McKerrell said that Skipper’s breach of trust was worse even than an employee stealing from his employer, since the money had not found its way to charities.

Had Skipper not been caught it was likely that the money would never have reached them.

The fact that some of this money had probably come from people who were not well off themselves only exacerbated things.

‘This is a truly wicked offence,’ he said.

For the three offences of stealing from Macmillan alone Skipper was sentenced to two months in prison, plus three months, consecutive, for the joint theft from Macmillan and Les Bourgs.

A compensation order for Macmillan was made for £1,036.