Regional charity very worried by hoax collectors
A Drogheda-based organisation, which provides meals and food parcels to the most needy in society, has expressed worry at claims there were individuals attempting to collect money in their name in County Cavan over the weekend.
The Anglo-Celt contacted the Irish Soup Kitchen Centre, based in Co Louth last Monday, after been made aware of a situation where patrons in local bars were approached and asked to make donations to the charity late last Saturday night.
This newspaper is aware of two such incidents over the weekend. On one occasion, shortly after 11pm, once such collector fled a bar after she was asked for ID. The woman is described as a “young woman wearing a red vest bib”. She was seen a short time later at another venue in the town.
Mark O’Neill, a driving force behind the Irish Soup Kitchen Centre, described it as a “very, very worrying” development that there are those falsely purporting to act on behalf of the charity for financial gain.
“Our collectors would know where we are based. That’s a very simple one, we have places in Drogheda, another place opening in Dundalk and one in Tullamore as well but not in Cavan at the moment, that’s not to say we won’t be,” he told The Anglo-Celt.
The Irish Soup Kitchen Centre provides up to 1,000 meals per week to families unable to make ends meet and operate with the support of local food retailers and producers.
“It’s very, very worrying that there might be someone saying they’re acting on behalf of ourselves, attempting to collect money from people. It would be very interesting to know if they had ID on them but the fact they ran tells me they had nothing,” Mr O’Neill told the Celt.
He added that it was “helpful” that members of the public are aware enough to seek identification from money collectors and hopes that this experience won’t harm the reputation of the Irish Soup Kitchen Centre or others charities by deterring the public from making donations in future.
The incident, Mr O’Neill said would be reported to the Gardaí in Cavan.