Scandal of ‘wasted’ public money meant to help veterans given to charities that did nothing with it
Firms receiving money from the £25million Libor fund delivered nothing, promoted unproven PTSD therapies, or just vanished
MILLIONS of pounds of public cash designated to help war veterans has disappeared into unknown charities.
The firms receiving the money have delivered little or nothing, promoted unproven “voodoo” therapies or vanished.
Senior figures in the charity world, armed forces and the medical professions are now calling for a probe into the “scandal” of the £25m Libor fund.
The pot was set up by then chancellor George Osborne to support veterans from the proceeds of fines levied on banks for rigging the Libor lending rate.
Hugh Milroy, chief executive of military charity Veterans Aid, said: “The public will be genuinely stunned to find out how much money has been wasted. Vast sums have been paid with an almost total lack of checks and balances.”
A Sunday Times probe revealed £933,000 from the fund was given to the Warrior Programme.
The charity gives traumatised ex-solders “time-line therapy” and neurolinguistics programming – methods described by psychiatrists as pseudoscientific, unproven and even dangerous.
Its lead trainer, David Shephard, claims he can “completely remove” PTSD in “less than three days.”
He also describes himself as a “doctor” on his Twitter account but later confessed the basis of this claim was an unrecognised internet qualification in “clinical hypnosis.”