Secret Millionaire star stole £87,000 from children’s cancer charity he founded
The founder of a children’s cancer charity has been convicted of stealing donations worth more than £87,000 from the organisation.
Colin Nesbitt had denied making financial gains from the charity between 2009 and 2015 but was found guilty after a five-week trial.
The 60-year-old, from Bingley, Bradford, was also convicted of abusing his position as director of the Little Heroes Cancer Trust. He will be sentenced on April 30.
Bradford Crown Court heard Nesbitt founded the charity to provide toys to children with cancer in hospital after his grandson was diagnosed with the disease.
Prosecutor James Lake told the jury that the Bradford-based charity had fundraised through events but some of that cash was diverted directly to Nesbitt.
He had sole control of the accounts and did not want other people banking cash from fundraising events, it was heard.
The prosecutor accused Nesbitt of using the charity’s money for his personal expenditure, including buying a suit, paying for a holiday in Gran Canaria and skimming cash off the events.
He added Nesbitt paid thousands of pounds into accounts not linked to the charity and used it to hand out unsecured loans on two occasions.
In 2012, the defendant appeared on Channel 4’s the Secret Millionaire – a reality show in which millionaires go incognito and agree to give away money to those in need.
In the episode, poker player Andrew Feldman gifted £100,000 to Nesbitt’s Little Heroes charity
Nesbitt was first arrested three years later in October 2015 after financial concerns were raised about Little Heroes by the Charity Commission.
He denied fraud to police, said he did not take a wage and rarely claimed expenses.
The jury heard Nesbitt founded the charity in 2008 and the toy drops started at St James Hospital in Leeds, before expanding to other children’s cancer wards across the country.
Around £1,000 was spent each time, with Nesbitt telling the court it was ‘awesome taking toys to sick children’.
He denied any wrongdoing but admitted managing and keeping track of finances was ‘not one of his strengths’.
‘I wasn’t being careful enough with the money but I wasn’t being dishonest,’ Nesbitt told jurors.
Mr Lake said although Nesbitt ‘did raise money for charity and put smiles on children’s faces’ he was ‘greedy’ and the organisation’s ‘biggest liability’.
‘Colin Nesbitt is a dishonest man. He did not run this charity badly, he ran it dishonestly,’ he told the court.
Following the trial, he was convicted of four offences of fraud and two of theft.
The defendant was cleared of a further similar charge of fraud in the sum of £120,482 and acquitted of a further count of stealing £7,000 from the organisation.
Judge Jonathan Gibson told the defendant ‘a custodial sentence will be under consideration’.
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