A charity which raises money for children with brain injuries and had donations stolen by a bogus collector has had some of the cash back.
Gwent Police has returned £569.98 to the British Institute for Brain Injured Children (bibic) stolen by bogus charity collector Paul Youde.
Youde, 63, who at the time of his arrest lived at Parc Avenue, Caerphilly, was sentenced in February this year for collecting more than £67,000 and not passing it onto the charity.
Youde was caught out when he was approached by Caerphilly County Borough Council’s Trading Standards team in a local supermarket in 2009.
The bogus charity collector was jailed for 28 months for his crimes following an investigation by Trading Standards and Gwent Police. He claimed to be collecting on behalf of bibic – checks with the charity revealed however it had not received any money from Youde since he registered with them in 2007.
Following this, Youde did make a small one-off payment to the charity. Enquiries revealed that Youde had been collecting intensively in the South East Wales area over a three-year period, sometimes dressed up as a clown or as Father Christmas.
Detective Constable Becky Hayward from Gwent Police CID, who investigated, said: “Most of what Youde collected had been spent over the three year period – thankfully we were able to recover £569.98 – money seized from Youde’s home in 2010.
“We’ve spent a long time working on this case and I’m happy that we are able to return some of the money. People like Youde prey on the kindness of members of the public for their own gain which is unacceptable. If anyone has doubts on the validity of a charity collector operating in their area, I would urge them to contact the police or their local trading standards team.”
Chief Executive of bibic, John Bennet, said: “This is a lovely gesture from Gwent Police. We’ve worked long and hard over the last year to ensure that Youde was brought to justice. The support from Gwent Police and DC Becky Hayward has been tremendous and we’ve built a good working relationship over the months.
“Our charity will definitely benefit from the donation – every cloud has a silver lining and we are thankful that DC Hayward has been able to make this happen.”