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Is this man a Fraud?
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Tommy in Glasgow running for "Children with Leukemia". This American spelling of "Leukaemia" would be unusual in the UK.
I find the combination of charities odd, and he doesn't seem to have any official-looking stationery.
From where I'm standing, he looks very suspect.
He really is a clown if he thinks he can pull the wool over the eyes of THE FORUMITES!
Stone him with marshmallows! (excellent suggestion bouncing barlist)
Dishonesty of this sort is unjustifiable surely (so what if its for charity-i'm sure they would not wish to be associated with fraudulent fund raising which this is).
Has anyone contacted the organisers to try to get to the bottom of this?
Is there anyone on the forum who is able to find out via the organisers?
If he is fraudulent then i think some of us forumites should dress as superheros (i have a batsuit) or fluffy bunnies and mug him (in a comedy-fun way) of his ill-gotten loot,donate it then chase him for...say 27 miles!
Not a witch hunt at all Cougs.
There are HUNDREDS of other ways this bloke could raise money without deceiving people. We just feel strongly that he shouldn't be allowed to do it by pretending to run marathons.
I don't think this can be allowed to continue. It's just like the phone ins. It could cast doubt on everyone doing marathons to raise money and lead to a lot of charities losing money. I'd suggest first thing to do would be to contact the charities. If that fails it's organisers and then the police.
Publicity might be something to be avoided, but I do like Rug 19's idea of a comedy mugging. If all else fails maybe we could suggest it to Watchdog...
I think this is getting a bit out of hand.
the clown can't spell - that doesn't mean he's stealing from these charities. I lecture on these diseases and sometimes I get the spelling wrong.
The clown hasn't done the full course - I don't think I'd want to pushing a trolley full of tuppenny bits.
The clown has taken a short cut - I suspect that he is maximising his money raising opportunities. Walk along the course at the most crowded bits to get the most money from punters.
At the end of the day there is no evidence that he has pocketed any of the money that he has collected and I suspect that he hasn't either. While I can understand the annoyance that he hasn't completed the course and therefore shouldn't receive a medal, in the grand scheme of things does it really matter?
Off to another thread now to complain about iPod wearers
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Podro-agreed we must gets our facts right and assume nothing until we ascertain the truth.
Or...we could 'tar and feather the man and warm his heels to Putney bridge' (so to speak-apologies to Richard Curtis for the paraphrase).
I almost hope he is a filthy wrongdoer now otherwise i'm going to feel silly and judgemental.
Imagine Dom Jolly mugging him dressed as a giant squirrel though...
Totally agree Podro. What about innocent until proved guilty folks? I would certainly like confirmation that he is a genuinely honest fundraiser. If he isn't then I would want it taken further and then I would custard pie him.
If the object of the exercise is for him to raise money for charity, then why doesn't he just walk alongside the course (or parts of it) to collect money from people? Why register as a runner in the first place? The answer is, of course, that by registering as a runner people will think he's completing the marathon and will be more likely to donate.
The real issue is that he's pretending to do something that he's not actually doing - which is dishonest.
FF one post you seem sympathetic next you're suggesting we poison him with out of date custard pies
I like the Dom Jolly squirrel idea
Can you do that to me, it sounds like fun and a good way to loose weight.
I may be wrong on this as I am relying on mental recall and possibly a bit of hearsay, but I seem to remember reading somewhere that it is known to FLM officials that there are a few persistent runners who either a. run without an official number, b. have an official entry but never actually complete the whole course. Whilst it is official policy to chuck out all cheats unceremoniously near the end of the race, there are a few who are 'allowed' to slip through the net.
I distinctly remember running in the late nineties a 3 hour ish sort of time and was rather surprised when at 22 miles I passed a competitor on crutches with quite literally only one leg. I'm sure I either enquired with someone or read that he was well known to officials who hadn't the heart to stop him as he had a number of 'issues', and continued to allow him to start his 'race' at 20 miles or so.
Without knowing all the facts, I would surmise that something similar may be happening here, that Tommy the Clown is known not to be completing the course but the officials have hopefully done some checking, see that the money does go to charity and weigh up that it would be a greater evil to deny him raising money for charity than it is to allow him to keep on what he is doing.
Whether that is correct or is right is another matter however...
I can see why he'd think it a good idea to concentrate on the start and finish areas (I tried giving out cards with my sponsor page address on at FLM and stopped because it was slowing me down, and I finished in 7.20, so doing what he's doing the whole course would be difficult!). But maybe what he should be doing is collecting the first stretch, handing the full bucket to a supporter, running like mad, then picking up an empty bucket and collecting again as he heads home.
Unless he actually says somewhere that he is not completing the whole course, he is getting money by deception. If someone can find such a public statement from him, then fine. Otherwise he needs to be stopped.
Did anyone yet mail HD Scotland and the HDA to check whether either of them know anything about him?
I'd be happy to do it, but I don't want to inundate them with mail if someone has already contacted them.
I haven't seen a photo of him from this year. Was he definitely collecting for HD this year, or could it have been for another charity?
If it was made obvious that he was not actually competing in the marathon, i.e. he didn't wear a race number, I would have absolutely no problem with him wandering along any stretch of the course he liked, collecting for whatever charity he liked. It's just that I wouldn't donate to him. In fact, I'd have more sympathy if he just dropped out altogether at 6 miles. It's the deception - and the intention to deceive - that's so wrong.
I'm really not sure the end justifies the means. Should a charity accept money obtained in an armed bank raid? Should it accept donations from muggings? Or fraud? And would the excuse "it's going to charity" justify such crimes?
Cheating (whether for a charity or not) is disgraceful and I for one would rush up to him with a bucket marked 'FIRE', and shower him with confetti.....etc
p.s I was overtaken at mile 20 by a bearded lady. Could they be from the same circus?
We should get somebody fat to sit on him, and then tickle him mercilessly.
Then we should put three hungry ferrets down his trousers.
And that's just for starters...
No-one has mentioned that appearing in a clowns outfit is a damned fine disguise......
Has anyone seen Corinthian lately?
It's lucky this guy seems to miss mile 17. Cause otherwise I could see him getting pied in 2009
Can someone not ask the Phantom Flan Flinger to come out of retirement?
I hope that this guy is not a fraud, but it does seem odd..... It could jeopardise many Gold Bond places in future, as charities may feel under the microscope that their runners are not genuine.
We could just hang him from a short branch with a bungee rope and let the phantom flan finger pummel him till he tells the truth....
Seriously, this was my fisrt FLM and I feel I earnt every penny and pound that people sponsored me. I'm a bit annoyed if the FLM know this guy does this every year as this just makes a mockery out of the hours of training that everyone puts in to run 26 miles.
I saw him at the red start pushing his trolley, collecting from the crowd - people were putting money in through the fence -, walking past the marshals. Based on this they seem to be happy to let him continue as no one told him to stop. It would be easy to have a fake number as all you have do to do is show your number pinned to your vest. No one really checks.
I have a huge amount of respect for those that do the course in fancy dress and even said good luck to him...
tinto
I know what you meen about earning every last penny as I have sweated blood and tears to achieve this myself.
Regarding the fake number though his number each year cannot be fake as his times are registered with FLM and each year he only seems to pass the first and last mats to register times then goes missing for the other 18 miles or so.
Re the one legged runner with issues: assuming he wasn't raising money for charity then I don't think it does a great deal of harm in that case to let someone get on with it. It makes him happy, no harm is done, why not? Even if people have issues though, if they are doing real harm you try and do something about it. Someone talking to an invisible alien in the supermarket gets ignored, but if they start smashing things or peeing on the lettuce then security are going to do something about it. Of course you try and do it in a subtle and understanding way, but some behaviour can't go on.
To me Tommy reads like someone who absolutely knows what they are doing. For one thing if you look at the earliest available years he didn't even bother going to the earliest matt. It suggests to me he's already had some suspicion and altered his tactics accordingly.
I have read the entire thread over the last couple of days and must admit i have a crap memory but as a runner in the 07 flm i thought the busiest section of supporters was over tower bridge ! , would our clown friend (or is it fiend ) not have raised lots of dosh by running this far as i think i remember his last chip timing was at 10k . For someone trying to maximise their fund raising effort this is a bit of a mystery as he would surely benefit by going through the cauldron of supporters across tower bridge. Looking at the map on page 66 of the current R/W i fail to see his way of thinking .