A disgraced anti-knife crime campaigner who set up a foundation for her stabbing victim brother is facing jail after admitting pocketing £20,000 in funds.
Kayleigh Pepper, 36, used the money plundered from the Rich Foundation to fund foreign holidays, go on shopping sprees and nights out and have her hair styled.
Hull Crown Court heard how she had defrauding the body out of the ‘significant’ sum of money over a four-year period from its launch in 2016.
Pepper originally denied the charge of fraud but changed her plea to guilty ahead of a trial due in April.
She now faces the prospect of a jail sentence when she is sentenced next month.
Disgraced anti-knife crime campaigner Kayleigh Pepper, 36, who set up a foundation for her stabbing victim brother is facing jail after admitting pocketing £20,000 in funds
Pepper made local and national headlines after she set up the charity after her 25-year-old brother Richard Pepper was stabbed to death in east Hull in 2015
Pepper made local and national headlines after she set up the charity after her 25-year-old brother Richard Pepper was stabbed to death in east Hull in 2015.
She spearheaded Hull’s No More Knives campaign aimed at educating people about the dangers of carrying weapons and became involved in raising money for families and victims of crime.
But after launching the foundation in 2016, she started to take out cash and use it for her own purposes, including holidays abroad and to buy new clothes.
It was revealed that among the cash taken from the foundation were funds for a peace garden in memory of Stanley Metcalf.
Stanley, six, was shot dead by his great-grandfather Albert Grannon with an illegal, modified airgun at his home Sproatley in July 2018.
After launching the foundation in 2016, she started to take out cash and use it for her own purposes, including holidays abroad and to buy new clothes
Pepper had asked for almost £3,000 raised towards the peace garden by family, friends and schoolmums at St Mary, Queen of Martyrs, Primary, to be sent to the Rich Foundation.
But enquiries by HullLive found that the cash was never paid to St Mary’s, who had already gone ahead with building the garden.
The colourful peace garden was opened in July 2019, but the money promised to meet the costs was never paid to the school by Pepper or the Rich Foundation.
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It was also found the foundation was never registered.
Pepper appeared before Hull Crown Court under the name Kayleigh Towler accused of taking funds over a two-year period between July 1, 2018 and April 9, 2020.
Prosecutors claimed that the amount taken was about £23,000 but following a change of plea to guilty for the fraud charges, the defence said the amount was closer to £20,000.
It was revealed that among the cash taken from the foundation were funds for a peace garden in memory of Stanley Metcalf, a six-year-old boy who was shot dead by his great-grandfather Albert Grannon with an illegal, modified airgun at his home Sproatley in July 2018
She will be dealt with, however, on the basis that it was no more than £20,000, the court heard.
Explaining that she would either face a prison sentence or suspended sentence, Judge Thackray told the court: ‘It’s still a very serious matter and passes the custodial threshold.’
He added that a factor in determining Pepper’s sentence would ‘whether you have repaid the money you have taken’.
Nigel Clive, mitigating, said Pepper wanted to put aside money to repay the missing cash but had not started doing so yet.
The fraud was not dishonest from the start and ‘a lot of good work was done’, said Mr Clive, adding his client had no previous convictions.
Speaking about her brother’s death in 2019, sister Kayleigh said : ‘Losing Richard is the hardest, most saddest part of telling someone he once existed, because we are then reminded that he is no longer here’
Pepper was bailed until the next hearing.
Richard Pepper was just 25 when he was stabbed through the heart outside his home in Hull in 2015.
His killer, Daniel Flatley, was jailed for 11 years for manslaughter.
Speaking about his death in 2019, sister Kayleigh said: ‘Losing Richard is the hardest, most saddest part of telling someone he once existed, because we are then reminded that he is no longer here.
‘Whilst we will never recover this, Richard gave us so many memories and filled our lives with love, no one can ever replace.
‘The one thing that keeps me going is keeping Richard’s memory alive.
‘We honour his memory, his life and everything he loved we cherish even more.’
This post first appeared on Dailymail.co.uk
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