Crown Advocate Rory Calderwood said the offences came to light after funds raised at a MacMillan ‘World’s Greatest Coffee Morning’ event hosted by Skipper were not received by either of the two charities.
The event on 26 September 2020 raised £557.55. There was meant to be a donation of £357.55 to Les Bourgs Hospice in memory of Michelle Sheppard and the remaining £200.00 was meant to be donated to MacMillan.
But Les Bourgs did not receive the donation. After several requests to Skipper to provide it, a complaint was filed with Guernsey Police.
Pictured: Skipper stole charitable donations meant for Les Bourgs Hospice.
Skipper told police officers that he had donated the £557.55 to MacMillan instead of splitting the money between MacMillan and Les Bourgs.
The police contacted MacMillan. It confirmed that no donation had been received.
This was despite Skipper using social media to publicise the amount of money raised.
Skipper hosted similar coffee morning fundraising events in 2016, 2018, 2019 and 2020. MacMillan told the police that it did not receive any donation from Skipper in 2016 or 2019 as well as 2020.
The total amount owed to MacMillan but not paid was £1,036.75 from the fundraisers held in 2016, 2019 and 2020.
Pictured: Skipper stole £114 from a darts tournament held in aid of Les Bourgs Hospice.
Whilst the investigation was ongoing, Skipper contacted Les Bourgs to apologise for his actions and asked for the police complaint to be withdrawn if he paid the funds owed.
Skipper subsequently made an unsolicited payment of £900 to Les Bourgs, which related to the unpaid £357.55 and a further sum of £114 raised at a darts tournament in November 2020 and also not paid to the charity at the time.
There was an overpayment of £428.45, which Skipper said was a gesture to apologise for his actions.
Skipper’s advocate, David Domaille, said that his client acknowledged “on reflection” that instead of overpaying Les Bourgs he should have made a donation to MacMillan in recognition of the money it was still owed.
Pictured: Skipper was sentenced in the Magistrate’s Court.
Advocate Domaille said that Skipper accepted that he had committed “a serious breach of trust” and that he had “failed the community”.
He said that Skipper’s crimes had led to him being the victim of verbal abuse and gestures of abuse as well as being spat at and that his family in England had also suffered verbal abuse.
Advocate Domaille told the Court that at the time of Skipper’s crimes he “was in serious debt and had buried his head in the sand”.
Personal references were provided to the Court which suggested that Skipper’s actions were out of character. It was stated that he had organised over 30 charitable fundraisers and, with the exception of the charged incidents, these had been successful and the funds donated appropriately.
Judge Graeme McKerrell gave Skipper credit for his early guilty plea and previous good character. But he noted that Skipper had paid Les Bourgs only after his crimes were uncovered and that he had not “come clean” straight away or in full.
Pictured: Skipper was sentenced to five months’ imprisonment at Les Nicolles.
“This was a serious breach of trust, made even greater when it involves money not reaching charities,” said Judge McKerrell.
“You were entrusted with money from voluntary contributions that were most likely from people who were also not well off but who were community-minded and kind-hearted.
“The whole system of fundraising is built on trust and this is as serious as it gets. This was a truly wicked offence.”
Skipper was sentenced to five months in prison.
He was also ordered to pay the outstanding £1,036.75 owed to MacMillan.