Move to ban charity directors

Moonbeams owns a holiday home in Florida

The Scottish Charities Office is to seek the permanent removal of the directors of the Edinburgh-based children's cancer charity Moonbeams.

The directors were suspended last month after a hearing at the Court of Session, following claims of mismanagement and misconduct.

The charity had 21 days to appeal against the suspensions, which expired on Tuesday night.

Moonbeams was set up in 1992 to provide holidays for children suffering from cancer.

Bank accounts frozen

But a judge at the Court of Session in Edinburgh heard last month that only £70,000 reached the Moonbeam Children's Cancer Charity out of an expected income of almost £3m.

The judge ordered that the five Moonbeams directors should be suspended from having any control over the charity.

The court also ruled that a chartered accountant should be brought in to manage its affairs and its bank accounts should be frozen.

In a petition, Lord Advocate Colin Boyd said that over four years the trading arm of Moonbeams received only a fraction of its income.

The charity got a fraction of the money

He also alleged that a holiday home in America was being reserved by staff when it was intended for use by children and their families.

The lord advocate said the present directors of the charity were William Power, of Piersfield Grove, George Douglas, of Drum Brae Drive, David Sinclair of West Pilton Street and Dorothy Ford of Bryce Avenue, all Edinburgh, and Karen Stewart, of Denholm Road, Musselburgh.

Tighter regulation

Mr Power, Mr Douglas and Mr Sinclair, along with Thomas Young, of Lady Brae, Gorebridge, in Midlothian, were the current directors of Moonbeams UK Ltd, which was established in 1998.

Earlier this year, after serious financial irregularities came to light at Breast Cancer Research Scotland, Communities Minister Margaret Curran pledged that a regulator would be appointed "as early as possible".

The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) said the Moonbeams case reinforced the need for tighter regulation.