NAOMI CAMPBELL WINS APPEAL AGAINST CHARITY TRUSTEE BAN

Naomi Campbell has won a legal challenge against a five-year ban on serving as a charity trustee, a tribunal ruled on Thursday. The ban had been imposed by the Charity Commission in 2024 following an investigation into Fashion For Relief, the charity Campbell founded. The First Tier Tribunal found that Campbell had been deceived by fellow trustee Bianka Hellmich. Judges Joe Neville and James Armstrong-Holmes, sitting with a third panel member, said serious misconduct in the charity's administration resulted from Hellmich's conduct and was concealed from Campbell. The tribunal said Campbell had no reasonable basis to suspect Hellmich's dishonesty before regulatory concerns emerged, and took reasonable steps once they did.

The Charity Commission's investigation had found that charity funds were used to pay for Campbell's stay at a five-star hotel in Cannes, France, along with spa treatments, room service and cigarettes. The tribunal found that Hellmich used forged documents and a fake email address, deceiving professional advisers and the Charity Commission itself. Three trustees were disqualified as a result of the investigation: Campbell for five years, Hellmich for nine years, and Veronica Chou for four years. Campbell brought her case to the First Tier Tribunal earlier this year, with a four-day hearing held in June. She told the hearing that her "only mistake" was trusting Hellmich, whom she alleged had forged documents.

The judges acknowledged that Campbell shared some responsibility for the charity's failure to file its accounts on time. However, they said this did not make her unfit to serve as a trustee, given what they described as the "sustained deception" she had faced. The tribunal's decision overturns the Charity Commission's 2024 disqualification as it applies to Campbell specifically. The findings against Hellmich and Chou were not affected by the ruling.