Tycoon killed in seaplane crash leaves £41m fortune to Oxfam
A BRITISH tycoon who died with his family in a seaplane crash has left £41 million to Oxfam after changing his will a year earlier.
Richard Cousins, 58, his fiancée Emma Bowden, 48, his two sons and her daughter died while on holiday in Australia last New Year’s Eve.
The head of the catering company Compass left the majority of his fortune to charity after inserting what is known as a “common tragedy clause” into his will, meaning that in the unlikely event that he and his sons were killed together, Oxfam would become the main beneficiary, according to The Sun newspaper.
Mr Cousins and his family died in Sydney when their DHC-2 Beaver aircraft plunged into the Hawkesbury River. The crash also killed Gareth Morgan, 44, the pilot.
Mr Cousins’s brothers Simon and Andrew, who were best men at the 1982 wedding to his first wife Caroline, will get £1million each.
An Oxfam spokesman said: “We are extremely grateful for this bequest, of which we have only recently been notified. We are working with the family and our board of trustees to identify how the money will be used.”
In its annual report for 2016-17, the charity received £19.8m in gifts through wills.
Oxfam has experienced financial difficulty recently in the wake of allegations that its staff hired prostitutes while working in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake.
Four employees were fired for gross misconduct and three others, including Roland Van Hauwermeiren, the director responsible for Oxfam in Haiti, were allowed to leave the charity. Mr Van Hauwermeiren denied paying for sex but admitted “making mistakes”.
After the scandal emerged earlier this year, thousands of people stopped making regular donations, and in June, Oxfam announced that it would have to make cuts in spending of £16million because of reduced funding.