Libel Laws UK

I hope i have put this in the right forum as i am not sure were to put this. apologies to mods.

I would like to have some information by some experienced knowledge people who know quite a bit about the uk law.

I would like information on defamation/libel law if it is a criminal or a civil matter? i would like to forward the following of what i have personally ' commited'.

There was a so called charity is suspected of misappropriation towards various of people and not accounted for any monies and they are suspected o fraud, anyways, A autistic person made a group on a social site stateing that one of the members of the 'Chairty' had gone on holiday using the holiday funds which of course was untrue allegation. In retaliation they mentioned they called the police and that the police finding this 'serious'. I find this laughable.

I have called the police on behalf of the Autistic person i have found no records of one of the members of ABC ever attending the station or any reference number been made for any libel or slander case as i am to be of the opinon after speaking with the police it is not a criminal offence. I called my local police station and they said that this type of behaviour is not a crime at all.

I am wondering if someone can confirm it is not a criminal offence with the said information in regards to what the autistic person has done.




[edit on 13-3-2010 by anonymousproxy]

IM NO LAWYER IN ANY WAY!

first off, their most likely just bluffing!

second, as im led to believe, in a libel case, the person who is bringing up the libel (i.e, the person you said has used the charity money to go on holiday) will have to proove that she in no way mis spent any of the charitys money.

libel can be messy for that reason, thats why alot of celebs and politicians NEVEr sue for libel , as it means dragging all through their provate world for everyone to see.

i will say this though.. guilty or not, setting up a facebook group and accusing them is a pretty stupid idea that will 99% of the time come back on you, as to make the group you yourself have to make the accusation!

one thing to remember, if they ARE in fact breaking the law, then they will know the law, hence the threat if libel to try and discourage you.

do you have some more info on the charity, proof, name ect, so i can do some digging on them .

ABC Foundation created by Mandy Francis, Stacey Crisp, terrance francis and Micheal Lawless.

Mandy is mother, Stacey Crisp daughter, Terrance Francis is partner to Mandy, Micheal Lawless partner to Stacey. A family affair.

ABC was created after the tragic death of Baby P, concerns been raised from donaters who hve not been answerd. questions were raised were:

1) Why did you not inform those people who donated to the Holiday Fund that the total £2200, didnt all go to Peters Siblings?
2) Why did you not inform people (that being members and admin) what you were doing with the rest of the money?
3) Why did you not ask peoples opinion/view as to what the majority who donated felt would be best to do with this....
4) Why do you not state donated funds information accurately on the website that you claim in your statement to be concentrating on?
5) Why are you even taking peoples donations and fundraising without being a registered company prior to this?
6) You claim you took funds and paid in cash into Peters Fathers Account. £980 pounds, an amount you cannot withdraw from cash machine in one day. You will have had to of obtained this over counter in bank branch before you paid straight into Peters Fathers account?You will have been given a receipt for this in the bank at the time of withdraw. This wont show any account details, But the amount confirmed nevertheless.
7) If you had the unpleasant experience of being a victim of fraud on your account, Why, especially as the money in the account isnt your own, did you not keep an up to date record of the account? As you say in your statement you have not checked it since July
8)Why if you are aiming towards being a registered charity are you not keeping accurate records/reciepts/accounts and checking accounts, from day one onwards?

9) You have stated that the foundation raised £2200 - £980 went to Peter's family and £300 went to an unnamed victims family. Please can you account for the remaining £920, which equates to approx 42% of all donations received, as I am sure you agree this is a lot of money?

10) Your website was only updated less than a fortnight ago and claimed that £2200 was spent on Peter's family for a holiday. Quote from your website 'Thanks to everyone who donated, and to all the hard working volunteers who helped us raise funds, we were able to raise £2200 by July 09 to send Peters siblings on holiday at the time the identitys of Peters killers were released.' Can you explain why you lied to everyone, including former admin? Just to note, the website you were 'concentrating on' had not been updated for months prior to questions being asked about funds.

11) Can you explain to everyone why you continued to take donations from people, despite not having clear and concise aims?

12. On the "Staceys Sky Dive" Pictures. The ABC state that her sponsored skydive has raised £500.00 to go towards The Holiday Fund. Now in the ABC Statement issued the other day, Stacey said she is still collecting peoples donations for this event. This leads me to assume that this money if hasnt been collected, definately hasnt gone towards The Holiday Fund, As you are all aware, the event has passed now.
So just WHAT/WHERE donations went towards the Holiday Fund? And what are they doing with the donations they are in the process of collecting from the skydive, which were claimed to be for the Holiday Fund? Id like to put this question to the ABC.

13) have given£15 to what I was told was a treat for baby Ps siblings, a visit to HamleysToyshop,I am told the visit did not take place? If this is true ? I would like the return of my money, along with considerable funds I gave to the holiday fund.

crime reference number is 292/120310

[edit on 13-3-2010 by anonymousproxy]

i had a look at their site from the info you gave me via u2u

my opinion, from their site,and what they say about themself is that they are either a very very very niaeve group of people who really have no idea what their doing and felt the need to try and do "something" ... or their conning people .. .one of those two, the fact their not a registered charity and people gave them money is bad.

you are right though, they should be able to proove what they have been doing with money in a second, its not like they have had alot, they have not even reached their 5000 to get the charity started yet they say they have been paying out?!? they have spent nothing, and if its all legit shoudl not be hard to proove.... the thing is, legit or not, i dont think they have to proove anything as their not a charity.

you would think with it being a charity, their woudl be at least one benifactor!

interesting all the same, ive got my internet head on searching about them.

The have been threatening members, one has evidence through mobile txt and been threatend by stacey "we wil give you greif".
If you was saving to become a chairty you would not take money out to make sure you get to that 5 thousand mark.

They are reportably going to be in the national press very soon, it will be a national scandle when exposed

[edit on 13-3-2010 by anonymousproxy]

Could someone please answer as to weather libel laws in the uk is a criminal offence?

yo again ... im very suprised noone else had responded to this, i had a search on them but have not looked more yet as ive been busy, but im gonna look for more.

on uk libel / slander/defemation laws, heres a page ..

www.urban75.org...

good thing is, is says strait away that libel / defemation is what you would be accused off, not slander, as its written word and not spoken word.

i wouldnt worry to much about it unless you actualy get court papers, as they will (i assume) know that if they try and get you done for defemation of character, all theor personal life and business is going to be brought public..

im gonna do some online digging, read some legal stuff about charitys before i comment more..

rememberm, im not law dude, just a geek who can use google... but i do love doing a bit of internet digging and its a while scince ive been on an ats based mission LOL

ive been looking over their facebook group ... it certainly seems they have made some unprofessional decisions, such as blocking people from their facebook page for asking questions (people who have donated)!

deffo something here i think! if i was you keep pressing, as theirs alot of people out their who would set up a "charity" like this just to milk it.

on reading more and a statement from one of their directors, and after reading that page, you probably wouldnt get into trouble as you seem to have some damn good grounds to suspect them... and its not just you who suspects them either...

i still think that its most likely some completly niaeve people who maybe thought they coudl start a charity and earn an easy wageslip from that // /when really they did not know much abotu what they were doin.



[edit on 14-3-2010 by boaby_phet]

Originally posted by boaby_phet
ive been looking over their facebook group ... it certainly seems they have made some unprofessional decisions, such as blocking people from their facebook page for asking questions (people who have donated)!

deffo something here i think! if i was you keep pressing, as theirs alot of people out their who would set up a "charity" like this just to milk it.

on reading more and a statement from one of their directors, and after reading that page, you probably wouldnt get into trouble as you seem to have some damn good grounds to suspect them... and its not just you who suspects them either...

i still think that its most likely some completly niaeve people who maybe thought they coudl start a charity and earn an easy wageslip from that // /when really they did not know much abotu what they were doin.



[edit on 14-3-2010 by boaby_phet]

yah got it in one, but they had to try and scare me dint they and knowin i had autism to!.