A former medal-winning Paralympian footballer has been banned from being a trustee by the charities watchdog after an investigation found a disability sports charity he founded paid £1m raised by the public to companies run by him and his wife.
The Charity Commission said Matt Dimbylow, 51, who represented the GB seven-a-side football team in the 2008 and 2012 Paralympics, and was a Paralympic World Cup medal-winner, was guilty of serious misconduct and abusing public trust.
Of £6m raised for the charity Dream It Believe It Achieve It (DIBIAI) through a lottery scratchcard scheme, £1m was paid to companies run by Dimbylow and his wife, Emma Dimbylow, the commission found.
A further £4.2m went on fundraising costs, including payments to an unnamed private lottery operator. Just £300,000 was spent on charitable purposes.
“The public expects trustees to ensure charitable funds are always carefully managed in the best interests of their charity and the cause they serve, in this case supporting children and disabled people with sport. Instead, the Dimbylows abused the trust that was placed in them as trustees,” said the Charity Commission’s head of investigations, Amy Spiller.
The commission concluded there had been significant breaches of trust at the charity, while its failure to tackle conflicts of interest had led to the pair enjoying “substantial unauthorised financial benefit” that was not in the charity’s best interests.
Dimbylow – described as the “driving force” at the DIBIAI – was banned permanently from being a trustee, while Emma Dimbylow signed an agreement promising not to act as a trustee again. The charity is in the process of being wound up, and any remaining funds will be given to another disability sports charity.
Matt Dimbylow became involved in the Paralympian game after a head injury in 2003 triggered a Parkinson’s-like brain condition. He also captained the England cerebral palsy football team and was inducted into the National Football Museum Hall of Fame alongside Alan Shearer, Michael Owen and Patrick Vieira in 2013.
He registered the charity the same year, and the commission concluded he planned to “extract funds from it”.
It said it stepped in early on to prevent him, as a trustee, from paying himself an £80,000 salary. He subsequently amended the charity’s governing document to enable it to pay companies owned by himself and his wife.
The commission began formally investigating the charity in 2017, and Matt Dimbylow was removed as a trustee two years later. Some of the funds paid by the charity to the Dimbylows’ companies were subsequently recovered by the commission through the courts.
While the inquiry was ongoing, the commission said it took action to restrict more than 30 bank accounts held in the charity’s name to stop payments being made without the regulator’s approval. Although the charity fundraising regulator looked into the actions of the lottery operator, no action was taken.
The watchdog criticised two other unnamed trustees of the charity, who it said were insufficiently independent and failed to hold the Dimbylows to account for their actions.
“Their lack of oversight and scrutiny created an environment where the charity’s funds could be misapplied,” the commission concluded.
The commission said it hoped its regulatory action against DIBIAI “sends a powerful message to others who may be tempted to use charity in this way”.
Matt Dimbylow and DIBIAI were approached for comment.
