Watchdogs savage Presidents Club over ‘groped’ hostesses
A DAMNING report has accused the shamed Presidents Club of caring more about the privacy of its rich guests than the scantily-clad hostesses who said they were groped and humiliated.
The Charity Commission found ‘significant failures’ at the menonly bash that saw allegations of harassment from the women hired to serve drinks and food.
Trustees of the Presidents Club breached charity law by not having adequate procedures to protect the waitresses at the black-tie gala held at the Dorchester Hotel in January, the Charity Commission found.
This was in ‘stark contrast’ to the measures they took to stop attendees from being identified, it said.
They also failed fully to recognise risks to the reputation of the charity from holding an all-male event staffed by an all-female staff who were ordered to wear ‘smart, sexy shoes’, it said. A government minister and several billionaires were among the 300 attendees at the fundraiser in Mayfair in January.
An undercover reporter who attended described how some of the 130 waitresses reported being propositioned, flashed and groped multiple times with ‘hands up skirts, hands on bums’.
Helen Stephenson, chief executive of the Charity Commission, said the trustees’ attitude towards the welfare of women working at the event ‘fell short of what would be expected’.
‘The allegations were entirely at odds with what we would expect from any charity when raising funds for such important causes,’ she said. ‘Our report should serve as a warning to others that raising funds for charity does not absolve trustees of their legal duties or moral responsibilities.’
Fundraising events should be places where all people are protected from harm, and ‘treated with respect and care’, said Miss Stephenson. ‘It is clear from our findings that the trustees of the Presidents Club failed to put the proper steps in place to ensure the dinner fully met those expectations,’ she added.
‘The trustees thought insufficiently about the welfare of the women hired to work at their charity’s event while taking careful steps to protect the pri- vacy of the male guests attending the dinner.’
She said there was no evidence the trustees – listed on the Charity Commission website as property tycoons David Meller, Harvey Soning and Bruce Ritchie – had acted in bad faith.
‘But they demonstrated poor judgment, and a lack of awareness of the important legal duties and responsibilities the law places on trustees,’ she added
However, the commission admitted its call for information did not result in anyone coming forward with allegations of improper behaviour.
A representative for the Presidents Club trustees said it was ‘ surprised’ at the report’s ‘muted acknowledgement of the fact that not a single complainant has come forward’ and at the ‘weight of credibility’ it gives to the Financial Times’s reporting of the dinner. ‘The core issues conclusions facts,’ Commission rather the investigated spokesman concern than in coming by any added the perceptions proven Charity to its and ‘We, would as trustees, never condone have never the sort of alleged behaviour described in the FT article.’ Leading figures in business, politics and finance attended the event. Guests bid up to £400,000 for lots including a night at a strip club, tea with Bank of England governor Mark Carney and lunch with Boris Johnson. Several charities who took donations from the club said they would return the money when the storm erupted but ‘a number’ had ‘reviewed their decisions’, the report revealed. The Presidents Club will now be wound up. Throughout its 33-year existence, the dinner had raised around £18million for children’s causes.