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Is this man a Fraud?
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£60,000 over 20 years, according to this slightly more credible source.
I'm still very concerned that the only mention of a donation I can find with google is this for £200.
I would expect his charities to make a much bigger noise about a high profile fundraiser.
huh, and i was going to invite you round for a game of monopoly...
So...why should we care?
1. Because maybe someone who likes running and is running for a charity that they can spell would like a place, but has missed the ballot a few times.
2. Because someone who can't be trusted to finish a challenge...can't be trusted. I'm not saying he's a thief, but if I was in his situation, I'ld have helpers every few miles to switch sealed buckets so that I could keep moving. Or if you're going that slow, Bedford's going to wear having a few unregistered people pushing a barrow behind him. If they can overlook these people who don't care for The Highway/and or Isle of Dogs, they're not going to be checking where it all ends up anyway.
3. If he's dodgy and exposed, it will wreck many charities work for a few years, and years .
4. Take this forum from the first question seriously. As above, if some tv company decided to do an expose on running event fraud, and were he proven to be guilty, this would be a real tragedy for many charities, and for many running events that are underpinned by what they give back to charity. And it would take a long time to recover. Look what a few rotten apples have done to air travel security. Imagine an expose on charity runners. It wouldn't be that hard to find a few bad ones to undo 99.9% of good.
5. LM needs a shoe up its a**e to put some checking/control on fundraising. I know a bit about them, and they're complacent.
The next person who says that "what if some old guy cheats the distance, but gives loads to charity" is an idiot, unless you see him hand the money over to a charity neutral.If I was running for a charity, I would know plenty about it, probably because it affected someone that I loved. But sure as hell I'ld know how to spell it. If you disagree, I challenge you to put a £20 note in his bucket next time you see him. Might give him a PB instead of the 20 x £1 coins others may wish to drop in.
Hope I'm wrong, Mike.
Oops...sorry, I'm an idiot. Even more so, since the next time I see Tommy at a race I'll be putting a few quid in his bucket. I'm happy enough to trust him to hand it over to the charity he happens to be raising funds for on that particular day, whether he can correctly spell the charity name or not..
Try me and pie me for my undoubted idiocy.
I'd like to see the response from FLM (if there is one)
I still think that alot of people seeing him with his buckets wearing a running number would donate on the assumption that he is running the whole course. Other costumed runners had helpers collecting the money - I'm sure the charity would have given him some sort of support ?
I agree that FLM should get its act together!
Raising loads of money for a charity is great and I guess he hasn't actually broken any laws unless he has promised to finish the whole marathon in exchange for the money (and assuming that all the money is going to the designated charity ).
Getting a running number only suggests that he wishes to take part - it doesn't actually prove that he intends to complete the whole thing, though most people would assume that he intended to try and that he would have taken reasonable steps to make the achievement possible.
The main issue seems to be that he then appears to skip to the finish (does he actually collect a medal?) and that his time is then recorded which may or may not be intended to deceive the race organisers and those who support him. If no-one knows where he is during the rest of the race, and he manages to collect money at the start and along part of the route then why else would he bother to cross the finish line unless it were to get the glory, the medal and to have his time recorded?
Of course, he may have completed it all but could have been just outside the fenced area amongst the crowds. If that is the case then maybe someone should advise him that the whole point of the split time mats is to show that the whole course has been covered.
The finish line and the medal is resverved only for those who have completed the whole course, pure and simple!
Repeating this pattern each year implies that he never intends to stick to the course, but always intends to cross the finish.
Charities need to be seen to be completely above board, otherwise they may lose support. I don't imagine they would want to be seen to be condoning any form of deception (if this is the case) however well intentioned. His charity really needs to clarify the situation and advise hom accordingly.
I'd like to believe that he was simply working the crowds outside the running area.
Boy you were up early RLTW!
If he was running off the course then his 10k, 30k and finish times would still add up but they don't. (Have a look at the earlier part of the thread).
The way I see it rules are rules. We might not like some of them but they apply to all of us equally and that is what makes them fair. If he is going to enter races then he needs to apply by the rules of the race, exactly the same as the rest of us.
I don't see that an exception should be made for him just because he's an elderly man and doing it for charity. Older people than him have raised money and completed races. People have completed races and raised more than him.
The minor celebrity status he has is something he has probably cultivated and clearly revels in. In adopting a high profile he's drawn attention to himself and been found out as a result. I'm afraid if you want to get away with cheating that isn't the best way to go about it.
Must admit, i was trying so see the potentially good side of it all.
I agree that the rules should be adhered to and I think FLM should review not only this case, but any others. I'm guessing if one can do it, then maybe others are too.
I'm sure there must be others RTLW but they may well be more discreet about it and therefore haven't been noticed.
I have had a bit of a read but not exhaustive so I am sorry if this point has been made and I missed it.
The argument that it is OK to cheat because he has raised a lot of money for charity is premised on the idea that he has raised an EXTRA amount of money for charity. My understanding is that the amount of money given to charity in general is actually fairly constant (well not exactly since it is gradually rising) so that while he has benefitted his own charity, other charities will have suffered. Fund raising is a competitive business.
He has not defrauded his own charities but he has defrauded others.
I don't really understand why he doesn't just raise money for something he *can* achieve.
Me neither Mellifera,
No reason at all for him to stop fundraising. Just not in the way he's doing it now.
I find the "prolific marathon runner" bit in Yersinia's link pretty galling actually.
so has anybody actually emailed him to explain what he does and why ?
his email address was given earlier
No, I e-mailed the FLM organisers and Rowan e-mailed his charity.
At the end of the day they're the ones he needs to answer to, not us - much as we might not like what he appears to be doing.
The charity have got back to me with a 'we are talking about it' kind of email. Personally I hope they'll have a quiet word with him. I'm more interested in stopping him than punishing him.
Am sure plenty of half marathons would love to have him Tommy the Clown around.
As the FLM entry/ballot fiasco always leaves plenty of people who want the challenge of 26.2 miles, one more place..
Good to know that Rowan,
I don't actually expect the FLM to get back to me but I think they will do something about it .
pieing techniques