Gang led by St Annes man stole more than £500,000 in charity donations by posing as collectors

Led by David Levi, 47 from Lytham St Annes, the criminal group collected money from the public under the guise that it would all be handed over to good causes.

Charities included Children in Need, Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity, The Children’s Society, The Christie Charitable Fund and MIND.

In reality, a large portion of the funds was kept by Levi and other members of the group.

Evidence showed that there had been no agreement with the charities that any of the money could be retained by the collectors.

Some of the charities initially gave their support to Levi’s collection activities when they believed the groups actions were legitimate.

As time went on many became suspicious and tried to prevent their names being used. 

The group travelled all over the country, often collecting donations in buckets outside supermarkets.

Many of the stores were persuaded to allow the collections, after claims by the group that they had permission from head office. 

If the collectors were challenged, threats were issued such as reporting employees or going to the media.

Together, the defendants built up a criminal operation which successfully removed hundreds of thousands of pounds of 'donations' from the public.

A total of approximately £500,000 was identified as cash deposits into the accounts of the group, of which less than 10 per cent was paid to the various charities.

Levi, who was jailed for five years, was assisted in the office he had set up by Kaysha Beck. 

Other defendants - Howard Collins and William Ormand - helped organise collections and assisted Levi with tasks. 

They also went out collecting themselves, as did the final defendants Martin Ebanks, Robert Roy Ferguson and Stephen Chesterman.

They were sentenced on Thursday (December 21):

• David Levi, 47, from Lytham St Annes, pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation, one count of conspiracy to transfer criminal property, and two counts of fraud. He received five years in prison.
• Stephen Chesterman, 63 from Benfleet, Essex, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation. He received 22 months in prison.
• Robert Ferguson, 63, from Blackpool, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation and one count of conspiracy to transfer criminal property. He received two years and five months in prison.
• Martin Ebanks, 59, from Oldham, pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation. He received 18 months in prison.
• Kaysha Beck, 31, of Lytham St Annes, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation and one count of conspiracy to transfer criminal property. She received 18 months in prison.
• William Ormand, 64, of Blackpool, was convicted by a jury of three counts of conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation and one count of conspiracy to transfer criminal property. He received three years and four months in prison.
• Howard Collins, 73, of Blackpool, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation, one count of conspiracy to transfer criminal property and one count of fraud. He received 28 months in prison.

Hayley Cooper, Specialist Prosecutor for the CPS, said: "The actions of David Levi and the criminal group deprived life-saving charities of significant amounts of money.

"Members of the public gave their money generously and in good faith, perhaps reassured by seeing the logos of national charities.  Sadly, the majority of the donations were pocketed by the defendants.

"Whenever money is collected for charity there must be absolute transparency and in bucket collections, every penny donated must go to those charities.

"At the CPS, we have specialist teams to prosecute cases of serious fraud such as this and we work closely with investigators to bring perpetrators to justice."