Drug boasts of shamed charity call centre boss: MoS film exposes toxic culture of firm targeting donors aged 98

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MoS probe showed how leading charities use firm which targets vulnerable
Now a new video sees team manager at Listen Ltd bragging about drug use
Oxfam has suspended all operations with the company and is investigating

Published: 17:49 EST, 13 June 2015 | Updated: 19:27 EST, 13 June 2015

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A manager at a charity call centre where recruits were trained to squeeze cash from 98-year-olds boasted to an undercover reporter about her staff’s illegal drug use.

A Mail on Sunday investigation last week exposed how Britain’s biggest charities – including Oxfam, Cancer Research UK and the RSPCA – are funding a firm where staff target vulnerable donors including pensioners, cancer patients and new mothers.

The MoS can now reveal that a team manager at Listen Ltd was secretly filmed bragging to an undercover reporter about how employees regularly take drugs after work.

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Brazen: A manager at Listen Ltd boasts to new recruits about staff drug use

It is a worrying insight into the culture at the tenth-floor South London call centre, where dozens of staff phone up members of the public asking for monthly donations.

In their first meeting, a female team manager told the reporter and another new recruit: ‘We’re probably the only team that go out drinking every single night ... We don’t get p****d. It’s more just a couple of drinks, a couple of joints like.

‘I don’t know if you guys smoke weed but most of them do on this team and there’s a pub like just up the road where you can smoke in the beer garden. It’s f****** awesome.’

Oxfam has suspended all operations with Listen Ltd and is investigating, as is the industry watchdog the Fundraising Standards Board (FRSB).

It is a worrying insight into the culture at the tenth-floor South London call centre, where dozens of staff phone up members of the public asking for monthly donations

Undercover video: Charity manager boasts employee drug use

When the MoS challenged the firm about the illegal activity, it said: ‘Listen always strives to operate to the highest professional standards.

‘It is a responsible, ethical fundraising company, with clearly set out policies and procedures, and acts promptly and decisively in any circumstances where these are breached.’

Last week, The MoS revealed how a trainer at the call centre paced around the room repeatedly challenging recruits on how they would respond to someone on the phone who said: ‘I can’t give you £10 a month. I am 98 years old this year and I’m a pensioner.’

A picture of the tenth-floor South London call centre, where dozens of staff phone up members of the public asking for monthly donations

Caught on film: The instructor working for Listen Ltd who trained recruits how to snare a 98-year-old pensioner

And when a reporter made a £6 text donation to Oxfam after speaking to a ‘chugger’ in Newcastle, her number was passed to Listen Ltd and just two hours and 37 minutes later, she received a call asking for regular donations.

‘The FRSB has called for the public to be given more control over the way they are approached by charities,’ said FRSB chief Alistair McLean.

‘We want to ensure that there are clear and easy ways for people to avoid unwanted contact and that further safeguards will be put in place when it comes to fundraising requests of the elderly and vulnerable.’

THE KINGPIN ON £300,000 A YEAR WHO MET THE QUEEN AT THE PALACE

The founder of Listen Ltd pockets £300,000 a year through a generous salary and share dividends package.

Tony Charalambides, 38, owns a £1.6million home in affluent Tufnell Park, North London. He met the Queen at Buckingham Palace in March this year in his role as a fellow of the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, which funds grants for overseas research.

The Cambridge-educated businessman owns 30 per cent of the telephone fundraising firm as its managing director.

Royal appointment: Tony Charalambides, 38, met the Queen at Buckingham Palace in March

Company accounts reveal he takes home a £130,000 annual salary and has received £294,415 from Listen dividends in the past two years.

Listen’s parent company is owned by two men who have made personal fortunes from charity fundraising. Chris Kazamias and Darren Instrall – dubbed the ‘chugging kingpins’ – own 60 per cent of Listen through their company TCLLH, and have shared £684,281 in dividends since 2012.

The pair also own Gift Group Limited, which has a £21 million turnover and is the parent company of Home Fundraising Limited, which conducts door-to-door fundraising.

They have shared £2.5 million from Gift Group dividends in the last five years on top of their six-figure salaries.

Mr Instrall, 49, a married father-of-two, lives in a £2.3 million house in South-West London, while Mr Kazamias, 41, lives in a £500,000 flat in North London.

Neither man responded to requests for comment last night.