Naomi Campbell v The Charity Commission for England and Wales
| Court | First-tier Tribunal (General Regulatory Chamber) |
| Judgment Date | 01 October 2026 |
| Neutral Citation | [2026] UKFTT 1365 (GRC) |
| Date | 01 October 2026 |
| Year | 2026 |
© CROWN COPYRIGHT 2026
NCN: [2026] UKFTT 01365 (GRC)
Case Reference: FT/CA/2024/0020
First-tier Tribunal
(General Regulatory Chamber)
Charity
Decided without a hearing
Heard on: 15th to 18th June 2026
Decision given on: 01 October 2026
Beforei
JUDGE NEVILLE
JUDGE ARMSTRONG-HOLMES
MEMBER CONWAY
Between
NAOMI CAMPBELL
Appellant
and
THE CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES
Respondent
Representation:
For the Appellant: Andrew Westwood KC, instructed by Joseph Hage Aaronson & Bremen
LLP
John Marjason-Stamp of Joseph Hage Aaronson & Bremen LLP
For the Respondent: Faisel Sadiq of Gatehouse Chambers
Decision: The appeal is allowed and the disqualification order is quashed.
Summary of Decision
2
1. The Tribunal allows Naomi Campbell’s appeal against the decision of the Charity Commission for
England and Wales to disqualify her from acting as a charity trustee for five years. There was serious
misconduct and mismanagement in the administration of the charity she founded, Fashion for Relief.
The Tribunal has found, however, that its most serious features, including unauthorised payments to
Ms Campbell’s co-trustee, Bianka Hellmich, failures in the management of the Charity’s finances and
the misuse of its funds, resulted from Ms Hellmich’s conduct and were concealed from Ms Campbell.
Ms Hellmich deceived Ms Campbell, used forged documents and a false email address purporting to
belong to her, and also deceived professional advisers and the Commission. Ms Campbell was not
involved in, and did not know of, that conduct. The Tribunal finds that she had no reasonable basis to
suspect Ms Hellmich’s dishonesty before regulatory concerns emerged and, when they did, Ms
Campbell took reasonable steps in response.
2. As a trustee, Ms Campbell did share ultimate responsibility for the Charity’s failure to keep proper
minutes and file its accounts on time, despite being misadvised. Condition D in section 181A(7) of the
always be taken seriously and the actions of its trustees carefully considered. Assessed in the particular
circumstances of this case, however, including the sustained deception practised upon Ms Campbell,
they do not establish that she i s unfi t to act as a charity trustee. The statutory conditions for
disqualification are therefore not satisfied. The appeal is allowed and the disqualification order is
quashed.
3. Our reasons for those conclusions are as follows.
REASONS
1. This is an appeal against the Charity Commission’s (“the Commission”) decision of 17 th April 2024
to disqualify the Appellant from being a charity trustee or trustee for a charity under section 181A of
the Charities Act 2011. The appeal is brought under section 319 of the Charities Act 2011.
Background and Chronology
2. The Appellant, Naomi Campbell, is a world-famous supermodel and philanthropist, who founded the
charity, Fashion for Relief, in the United States in 2005. On 19th January 2015, Fashion for Relief was
registered as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) in England (“the Charity”). At the time of
registration, the trustees were Ms Campbell, Ms Bianka Hellmich (also known as Ms Bianka
Tobinska), Mr Lait Modi (subsequently resigned on 8th April 2019) and Ms Veronica Chou
(subsequently resigned on 19th November 2021).
3. On 2nd September 2020, the Commission opened a proactive Compliance Visit and Inspection (“CVI”)
into the Charity following a review of information submitted in the Charity’s Annual Return for the
financial year ending on 5th April 2018. The CVI was closed on 9th March 2021, when the Commission
issued an Action Plan, detailing steps which the tr ustees needed to take in relation to the Charity’s
governance and management. The Action Plan was sent to Ms Hellmich and Mr Richard Naylor, who
was then acting as the Charity’s accountant and who played a significant role in relation to managing
the Charity’s finances.
4. On 8th November 2021, following a review of the responses to the Action Plan, and as a result of its
regulatory concerns that there was or had been misconduct and/or mismanagement in the
administration of the Charity, the Commission opened a statutory inquiry into the Charity under
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