Captain Tom Moore’s daughter’s company suffers £145,000 drop in assets over last financial year, accounts show amid questions of the family’s handling of NHS hero’s fundraising cash

A company run by Captain Tom Moore’s daughter has seen the value of its assets plunge by more than £145,000 over the last year.

Club Nook Ltd was registered by Hannah Ingram-Moore in April 2020, less than two weeks before the Captain Tom Foundation was incorporated – with her husband David also listed as a director.  

As controversy continues to rage over the couple’s handling of the war hero’s fundraising legacy, new filings show Club Nook has suffered a slump in its fortunes. 

The firm’s net assets fell from £482,268 in 2021/22 to £366,000 in 2022/23 – a drop of £116,268, according to new unaudited micro accounts filed on Companies House last Friday. 

Mrs Ingram-Moore admitted last year that £800,000 worth of profits from Captain Tom’s three books had been paid into Club Nook. 

In a TV interview, she claimed her father wanted his family to keep the profits from Captain Tom’s Life Lessons, One Hundred Steps and Tomorrow Will Be A Good Day and insisted readers were never told the money would go to charity. 

But this was called into question by the prologue of the third book, an autobiography, which suggests the veteran thought his books were just another way for him to fundraise. 

The extract read: ‘Astonishingly at my age, with the offer to write this memoir I have also been given the chance to raise even more money for the charitable foundation now established in my name.’

Club Nook made £809,000 in its first year, and after creditors were paid, it was left with just under £500,000, company accounts show. 

The Charity Commission is currently conducting an inquiry into the Captain Tom Foundation, which was set up to manage his fundraising legacy. 

It previously turned down an application from the charity in 2021 to employ Mrs Ingram-Moore as chief executive on a £100,000-a-year salary. She was later taken on as interim CEO for nine months on the equivalent of £85,000-a-year. 

Mrs Ingram-Moore has also been criticised for pocketing £18,000 for judging a charity award and handing out a plaque while the foundation received just £2,000.

The mother-of-two admitted accepting the fee to attend and judge ‘The Virgin Media O2 Captain Tom Foundation Connector Award’ while still the foundation’s boss in an interview with Piers Morgan in October.

She said: ‘That relationship with Virgin Media started way back in 2020. My father was paid to be a judge, and judges are often paid.’

It recently emerged that the foundation will be shut down once the Charity Commission investigation is over.

The announcement coincided with a planning hearing that saw officials order the demolition of an unauthorised £200,000 spa built by Captain Tom’s family in their garden. 

Hannah and Colin applied in 2021 for permission to build a Captain Tom Foundation Building in the grounds of their £1.2million home in Marston Moretaine, Bedfordshire.

The L-shaped building was given the green light, but Central Bedfordshire Council refused a subsequent retrospective application in 2022 for a larger C-shaped building containing a spa pool.

Officials served an enforcement notice requiring the spa to be knocked down, but the family appealed and a hearing was held in October.

The Planning Inspectorate rejected the appeal last month and said the family had six weeks if they wanted to apply for a judicial review. The authority confirmed last month that the family had not submitted an appeal before the deadline passed.

At a Planning Inspectorate hearing in October, Ms Ingram-Moore insisted that the unauthorised spa was intended for regular rehab sessions and coffee mornings for local elderly people – not the family’s benefit.

The planning application for the annex indicated it would be used as office space for the Captain Tom Foundation.

It was also believed it would be a community space to store thousands of cards and gifts sent by admirers.

The C-shaped building was given the green light by Central Bedfordshire Council, but the planning authority refused a subsequent retrospective application in 2022 for a larger building containing a spa pool, toilets and a kitchen ‘for private use’.

The extension was called the Captain Tom Building in the plans, but it soon became apparent that the structure taking shape bore little resemblance to the one that had been sanctioned.

Following complaints from locals, a site visit was undertaken in March 2022, but the planning officer reported that the ‘windows were covered and access to the inside of the building was not possible’.

The council insists that the C-shaped building, that was built on a tennis court, was 49 per cent larger than what had been approved and must be demolished.