Ball where ALL ticket cash went to organisers

HUNDREDS of cocktails — one named The Sideburn after Bradley Wiggins’s famous facial hair — are balanced on top of each other like towers. Tables are littered with empty glasses.

Olympic gold winner Sally Gunnell jokes that there is ‘far too much free vodka’.

Clutching a drink, Sir Bradley embraces his Olympic teammate Sir Chris Hoy, and the sporting heroes — both wearing their finest bespoke suits — share a joke.

It was October 2012, two months after Sir Bradley led Team GB to glory at London 2012, and the occasion was the Yellow Ball — an extravagant fundraising event put on by the Bradley Wiggins Foundation.

Those attending paid £594 per ticket or a group price for a table — with some for 12 costing £14,340. more than £150,000 came in from ticket sales.

Supporters were told that the charity was raising money for the next generation of athletes, promising to promote sport and fund young people with potential.

But all the £150,000 cash raised through ticket sales was banked by a private events organiser as payment for the lavish party.

The Bradley Wiggins Foundation was launched after the cyclist’s heroics at the London Olympics in 2012. Invitations to the Yellow Ball were sent out with fancy-dress sideburns stuck to them.

Held at the Roundhouse, a music venue in trendy Camden, North London, guests posed for photos on a yellow carpet — the colour of Sir Bradley’s cycling kit — before going through to a grand reception.

A five-course dinner was punctuated with drinking games. Shot glasses bearing Sir Bradley’s name had been made for each guest.

On the top tables, there was a bottle of wine per person, as well as two bottles of champagne and two bottles of vodka.

Sir Chris Hoy’s wife Sarra took a photo of a shot glass and tweeted: ‘Drinking games at the #yellowball. Class act or what?’ The crowd, which was described as ‘raucous’, heard live music from Sir Bradley’s favourite bands.

To support the charity, musicians performed for free.

ROCK star miles Kane (co-frontman of the Last Shadow Puppets) had arrived with young model and It-girl Suki Waterhouse, who cheered him on during his set.

Bruce Foxton and Russell Hastings of indie band From The Jam also performed.

But within months of the event, some of those who had given generously began to call the charity, asking what had been done with the money and raising concerns on web forums.

One supporter told the mail: ‘We spent a fortune but couldn’t get any information back. The charity just batted it away. We got no answer.’

His conclusion? ‘We got the impression the charity and the ball were all just so Wiggins could have a party.’

On the night of the ball, Sir Bradley spoke to the media on the yellow carpet. ‘We are here for a reason, which is to raise money for my foundation, which will hopefully support the next sporting generation.’

Supporters at the Yellow Ball had paid for their tickets in good faith. The high prices for tickets were listed on official advertising alongside a big logo that stated: ‘Supporting Bradley Wiggins Foundation.’ Next to this, the charity’s aims and objectives were listed.

In August 2014, after the Charity Commission became involved, the regulator told the charity to explain how the money was spent.

When the foundation filed its first accounts, in February 2015, they showed that the Yellow Ball cost the foundation just £10,671 to put on and made a surplus of £65,814 for the charity.

In fact, the foundation’s figures represented only the takings from an auction held that evening. No mention was made of the ticket revenue.

Sir Chris and Sarra Hoy, mr Kane, miss Waterhouse, From The Jam and ms Gunnell were unavailable for comment.