Unmasking the con men

From Recycling World, 23^rd May 2003

UK charities and textile recyclers are being ripped-off by bogus collectors who are duping the public.  Michael Durham uncovers the truth behind one of Britain’s biggest ‘charity’ scams

CRIMINAL GANGS from Eastern Europe are cashing in on a lucrative trade in cast-off clothes, undermining charity shops run for genuine good causes. Leading charities such as Oxfam, the Salvation Army and Scope are warning householders to beware of bogus collectors making doorstep appeals for goods.

Rag traders from Lithuania and the Ukraine are believed to be behind the fake charities, in an attempt to muscle in on an estimated £300m legitimate trade in old clothes. The bogus collectors put leaflets through letter-boxes offering to collect clothes, shoes and household items “to benefit people in Eastern Europe”. The goods are then sold commercially in shops in Poland and the Baltic states.

Britons throw out an estimated 750,000 tons of old clothes each year, with the majority going to landfill. However about 200,000 tons goes to charity through high street shops, clothes recycling banks and legitimate doorstep collections. Trade in unwanted garments is now extremely profitable for charities and commercial clothes merchants who collect the garments for them, with used clothes reaching up to £600 a ton.

Andrew Stockwell, Manager of Oxfam’s clothes sorting centre in Huddersfleld, said: “We are aware of these people. Oxfam is not badly affected because most of our clothes are donated at charity shops, but a lot of smaller charities must be feeling the pinch. We advise members of the public to take their clothes directly to a shop or a clothes recycling bank”

Elliot Cohen, Chairman of the Textile Recycling Association, said:   “These people are a real problem. They are completely unscrupulous. They blitz an area, spend a couple of weeks distributing leaflets and then move on. If they are challenged they usually say they don’t understand English, although they seem to get along fine the rest of the time.

“They seem to come from Lithuania, Belorussia and the Ukraine. Sometimes they will find out where a legitimate charity is carrying out a door-to-door collection and then send out their own vans to pick up bags from the doorstep before our own collectors get there. When our collectors call, householders say ‘but your van had already come to pick the goods up’.”

Andrew Slee, a Hampshire trading standards officer, said they had received a ‘flurry” of complaints from people about leaflets distributed by companies calling themselves Gotham and Celaria. “Neither seemed to be registered as charities and officers around the country have been unable to make any contact with them, which makes us very suspicious. We would advise householders to have nothing to do with them and report the leaflets to us.”

In some areas, unlicensed operators are accused of placing their own ‘charity’ banks next to the recycling bins officially operated by the Salvation Army, Scope and the British Heart Foundation and refusing to comply with demands to remove them.

One company of particular concern to leading charities is Planet Aid, a company based in the North East which has placed hundreds of clothing banks outside pubs, supermarkets and shops all over the country. Established recyclers say the banks often appear overnight next to their own, in defiance of agreements brokered between textile recyclers and local authorities.

Danny Williamson, a director of Devizes Textiles, said the company had had frequent problems with Planet Aid or its associated company, Green World Recycling.

Earlier this year Devizes Textiles received threats of legal action after it removed a box that had been placed without permission next to oneof its own official recycling points outside a Tesco supermarket in Cheltenham. “They are extremely persistent, and will not abide by any agreements,” he said. “They are robbing local people - they simply sell the clothes abroad. Supermarket managers just don’t seem to care.” Boxes are still in place outside Sainsbury supermarkets in Cheltenham and Swindon.

In the UK, Planet Aid and Green World, which are not registered charities, claim to support environmental and Third World charities abroad. However investigations have shown some of the charities do not exist and the two companies are known to be associated with a movement with large commercial operations throughout the world, whose founder, Amdi Petersen, was recently extradited to his native Denmark on fraud charges. Three years ago, the Charity Commission closed down another of Petersen’s UK used clothes companies, Humana, after a two-year investigation.

"Planet Aid just come in, pick a nice site, collect the clothes for free, and then flog them off. They are unfair competition,” Elliot Cohen said.

Birgit Soe, Danish-born director of Planet Aid UK, said: “I do not want to talk to you. Goodbye.”

In some cases, thieves have resorted to desperate measures to steal clothing from banks. Some people are known to have dropped young children into banks in an effort to reach the clothes inside. Five years ago, two men died from suffocation in a clothing bank in Staffordshire after climbing inside to get at garments.

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