Lottery manager Simon Rydings, responsible for running the Sheffield Hospitals Charity lottery scheme was sentenced to 12 weeks in prison at Birmingham Magistrates Court following misuse of charity funds to the tune of £285000.
The charity is left downhearted as they’d placed their trust in the 50 year old CEO of Capen Limited from Edinburgh to generate revenue as its authorised external lottery manager.
The charity raised £3.2 million in the last five years and relied on the several thousand pounds revenue by running the lottery scheme to support these services.
Simon pleaded guilty to profiteering the lottery winnings in court.
Gareth Aston, CEO of Sheffield Hospitals Charity was quoted saying: “We are deeply upset and saddened by the events which have taken place. As a charity, our biggest responsibility and priority is to assist our beneficiaries, and we rely on the wonderful supporters of the charity to be able to achieve that.
“We welcome the outcome of the case and we will do everything within our power to recover the outstanding funds.”
The charity released a statement on their website saying: “The fraud did not affect any of the lottery players (or payment of any prizes), it simply affected the revenue generated for the charity.
“Sheffield Hospitals Charity has carried out a thorough review of its processes and, through an abundance of caution, even more stringent security measures have been put in place concerning the handling of funds such that all sums generated by the lottery are now paid directly to Sheffield Hospitals Charity by the collection company, and Sheffield Hospitals Charity is confident that there is no prospect of any such fraud being perpetrated against Sheffield Hospitals Charity in the future. The charity no longer works with or has links to Capen Ltd and Directors.
“We wish to assure all of our lottery players, present and future, that the proceeds from any tickets purchased will benefit the charitable causes which we fight so hard to maintain and improve. “
