Bogus Charity Collecting on Thursday 13 May
SOS Clothes Ltd is collecting in St Margarets claiming to give proceeds to The Tree of Hope. The SOS Clothes charity does not check out on the charity commission website. At first glance you would think that the collection is conducted by The Tree of Hope itself but this is not the case. Read an article on the Mirror and decide for yourself. Better to take your items to a legitimate high street charity.
Comments
SOS Clothes Limited has donated more the £60,000 in just over one year to The Tree of Hope Children's Charity, which helps a lot of sick and disabled UK children. For this, we are extremely grateful.
SOS Clothes is NOT a charity
please remove this unfounded and incorrect article from your site. We will be thinking about prosecution if it is not removed.
www.sosclotheslimited.com www.treeofhope.org.uk
Corinne Gardner on 2010-05-20 18:43:05 +0000I hope you have posted your letter to the Daily Mirror also. They are the source of this information, and have a lot greater resources and readership than what you find here. I'm sure they will remove their article pretty quickly if you provide them with clear proof of their error.
There are an awful lot of bogus charity scams around, you must realise this, and also understand that ordinary people have little option other than to rely on investigative journalists such as they for information?
It's strange to consider that a company would consider suing the not-for-profit website of the community on whom they rely for donations.
Ed Randall on 2010-05-23 21:24:39 +0000Corinne Gardner is correct.
SOS Clothes are not a charity.
They are also not licened to collect as has been reported on many occasions by various groups and concerned individuals. Therefore the company is acting illegally and "treeofhope" need to be aware of the implications for themselves for their part in this. I would expect the authorities to be acting on this shortly.
Steve on 2010-06-21 18:52:36 +0000More information on companies/organisations/charities who make collections on the "Charity Bags" website: www.charitybags.org.uk/index.htm.
There is a lot of detailed information, including particular named companies, the law and rules for door-to-door collecting, as well as an outline of a 2003 report on this subject from the Charity Commission
Victor Warner on 2010-06-23 10:12:58 +0000June29th 2011 I have today received a clothing collection from SOS clothing Ltd. I checked it out on the internet, They give a big warning at the bottom of the page about people operating illegally.
pamela holtham on 2011-06-29 10:59:05 +0000Hi Pamela, would you post the link on here please.
Maddie Racionzer on 2011-06-30 07:09:43 +0000I manage a very well known charity shop of which for legal reasons I will not mention. Our collections in recent months have been effected on a huge scale by bogus collectors. We have proof that the drivers who collect on behalf of the tree of hope and sos have been collecting our charity bags! I have contacted the tree of hope and was directed to the company's accountant, she confirmed one of their van drivers registration plates which matched one of the ones that has been seen collecting our bags!
These drivers go around collecting other peoples charity bags and take them back to a location (which is known) from there they then take the items out for resale at car boots and markets!
We have all vehicle registration numbers, witness statements and addresses. I feel maybe the tree of hope and sos may need to take a very close look at their van drivers.
I am pleased to say the police are now taking this long standing problem seriously and are watching and investigating. We spend a lot of money on van drivers who post out and collect for us legitimately and it is soul destroying when they go to collect and come back with one bag because these bogus collectors have been and swept the area first! I am still awaiting a phone call from the tree of hope as promised by Audrey Jenkins, she said their chairperson would get back to me, this was 2 months ago now!
I don't feel your drivers are helping your cause tree of hope.
I would say to anyone who leaves a bag out for a charity collection, if you are unsure the person collecting is genuine ask them for I.D, all genuine drivers carry it with them proving they are contracted to collect for that charity, failing that call the charity concerned to check it out!
I welcome any comments on this from the tree of hope and sos!
ness on 2011-08-07 09:22:57 +0000Collection for wed 28th Sept Birmingham. Alpha clothing ltd company states in association with tree of hope.is this correct ?
coco on 2011-09-27 00:36:54 +0000Hi Coco, I would recommend you take anything you wish to recycle to a charity shop. There are now so many of these bogus companies that if you leave a bag on your property chances are it will fall into the wrong hands.
Maddie Racionzer on 2011-09-29 16:45:48 +0000Good morning all that read this. this morning on the 9/10/2013 i just had a tree of hope envelope. posted through my letter box. i have never heared of the charity before. so checked it out for curiosity. and found this page. the young lad what posted it through. was what i would call of gypsy origin. that was dropped off in a old pick up truck. that looked like it was more used to collecting scrap. so all beware its time the police started to crack down on these people. who are making the genuine charity,s suffer. thought i would add this comment to help put people right. thanks.
david on 2013-10-09 09:17:37 +0000For information about Tree of Hope charity please visit the charities website at www.treeofhope.org.uk.. To find out more about the charity's clothing collections go to "Donate" then "Textile recycling". SOS Clothes Ltd. is a social business which has an exclusivity agreement to operate licensed House to House clothing collections on behalf of Tree of Hope. A lot of charities use commercial participators to provide support and help with fundraising activities and this partnership is no different and legitimate. Regarding the Mirror article, the article was fully investigated and found to be groundless. Unfortunately it is very difficult to get false articles online and blogs online removed. Thank you for your continued support to Tree of Hope.
Holly on 2013-10-30 17:46:08 +0000These scammers must be getting too well know down south now, there posting bags in my area of Gateshead today. Police and council have been informed and will be watching for them on there stated collection day thats printed on the bag :)
Brian Lucas on 2013-12-07 14:47:42 +0000Add a comment