Charity Dispute Escalates as Director & former Trustee Rejects Wharton Trust Loan Claims....
Hartlepool Charity at the centre of a payments scandal Hits Back Over Wharton Trust Loan Claims and Says Legal Proceedings Are Ongoing....
7th November 2026
A Hartlepool Charity said to be linked to an investigation into payments made to it by the Wharton Trust has issued a strongly worded statement rejecting claims that it ever received a loan from the troubled Hartlepool Charity, openly challenging the Trust’s published accounts and saying legal proceedings are now 'ongoing'.
The 'charity' headed by the Wharton trusts former trustee is seeking to distance itself from the disputed loan claims made by the troubled Hartlepool Charity The Wharton Trust, insisting that neither LilyAnne’s Wellbeing nor its predecessor, LilyAnne’s CIC, ever received a loan from the Wharton Trust, contradicting reports made by two separate accountants, one of those independently appointed to the charity after the claims emerged.
The director of the town charity also rejected descriptions of the CIC as a 'failed business', saying the organisation merged into LilyAnne’s Wellbeing as part of its transition to registered charitable status.
The statement follows an exclusive report published this week by The Teesside & Durham Post concerning the Wharton Trust’s finances and money recorded as having been reportedly advanced to the business LilyAnne’s CIC.
Its denial places the accuracy of the disputed financial information in the Trust’s accounts at the centre of an increasingly public disagreement, with the Wharton Trust reporting that the scale of the financial 'irregularities' now placing the future of the Hartlepool charity into turmoil, after its been claimed a number of grant funders have now expressed that funding made to the charity be repaid following a loss of confidence in the charities operations.
Nevertheless, its claimed the director of LilyAnne’s claims it repeatedly contacted The Wharton Trust seeking corrections to its official financial reports, but says those efforts failed to secure a meaningful response.
“Despite repeated correspondence requesting correction of what we maintain to be inaccurate information in the Trust’s published accounts, The Wharton Trust has failed to meaningfully engage with us or address our concerns,”. (LillyAnnes CIC)
Addressing the history of the organisation, the spokesperson for LilyAnne’s added:
“We also wish to clarify that LilyAnne’s CIC was not a failed business. It merged into LilyAnne’s Wellbeing as part of our transition to becoming the registered charity we are today.”
Separately, The Teesside & Durham Post has previously reported that a director associated with LilyAnne’s reached an out-of-court settlement involving a £1,500 payment to liquidators following a director misfeasance claim concerning the failed business Zilo News Ltd, the payment occurred just weeks before the director of the company, who was at the time a trustee of the Wharton Trust resigned, with the same director of the Hartlepool Charity LillyAnnes claiming it has now taken its concerns about the accounts to the Charity Commission and raised the circulation of the allegations with police.
Xilo News Limited entered creditors' voluntary liquidation in July 2024, leaving behind £95,936 in unsecured debts
The director of that company Trevor Sherwood agreed to a £1,500 settlement to resolve the director misconduct claim, which was accepted and received by liquidators on 1 July 2025.
LilyAnne’s went on to conclude that:
“As legal proceedings remain ongoing, we will be making no further public comment on this matter.”
The charity has not identified the parties to those proceedings, the court involved or the precise nature of the claim.
Its public position is nevertheless clear in that it rejects the loan allegations & disputes the description of its former CIC, with the disagreement now centering on two hugely conflicting accounts of what's happened, with LilyAnne’s demanding that its denial be recognised and the underlying financial questions remaining unresolved as the police investigation continues.
