Lee Dribbin, the former 'CEO' of The Ashley Foundation, a Blackpool-based charity that is supposed to provide support for homeless people, is being investigated by the Charity Commission according to reports.
WireNews has been reporting for nearly five years about Dribben's questionable involvement in the charity, including accusations of racism, warnings about his executive role in the charity, without being a Director in accordance with Companies Act and the worrying willingness of numerous Trustees, who collectively bowed to his authority in all financial matters.
On 1 June 2019 WireNews reported the 'retirement' of Dribben. Dribben has never been a Director of the company and could not have legally had an “executive” role in the management of the company, but that hasn’t stopped Dribben from pulling the strings from the shadows. Since the founding of the ‘charity’ Dribben has in effect been a ‘shadow director’ as defined by Companies House. According to the former Chairman of Trustees for The Ashley Foundation, Roy Leonard Alleway (who was elevated to the role of Chairman after long-term Chair of Trustees Paul Austen Bamber ceased being a Director in June 2016 after 19 years) Dribben is, by definition, a Shadow Director.
According to the Charity Commission website, the charity's accounts and annual return are "overdue".
A main source of revenue for the charity is public money paid by Blackpool Council and other area Councils, for the care of the homeless in Lancashire.
Numerous properties controlled by Dribben and valued by an estate agent closely connected to Dribben have made it possible for Dribben to syphon off funds for years, through inflated rents, repairs and refurbishments, while he denied any official involvement with the charity. Travelling expenses and other luxury goods were also reimbursed by the charity.
A professional gambler, Dribben has used the charity as his own personal piggy bank, by funnelling money for expenses claimed to be associated with charity activities, when the money was used to support his lavish lifestyle.
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