A five-year trustee ban imposed on supermodel Naomi Campbell by the Charity Commission has been overturned by a tribunal.

The first-tier tribunal reached its decision on 1 October following a four-day hearing that took place in June.

The ban was put in place two years ago following a Commission probe into the financial management of Fashion for Relief, the charity she founded.

She was one of three people involved in running the charity to receive bans, including the lawyer Bianka Hellmich and businesswoman Veronica Chou. Among concerns highlighted by the Commission were unauthorised payments totalling £290,000 for “consultancy services” paid to Hellmich.

But the tribunal ruled that, while there was “serious misconduct and mismanagement in the administration of the charity”, this had resulted from Hellmich’s conduct, which she had concealed from the supermodel.

“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,” found the Tribunal.

“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.”

Despite Campbell sharing “ultimate rsonsibility” for failures at the charity, which was set up in 2015, the Tribunal found that due to the “sustained deception” of Hellmich, the Commission had failed to “establish that she is unfit 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,” concluded the Tribunal.

Following its investigation the regulator said it has recovered over £344,000 and protected a further £98,000 of charitable funds. These were used to make donations to two other charities and settle outstanding liabilities at the charity, which was wound up and removed from the register. It had been on the register since 2015.

Charity Commission will 'reflect' on decision

A Charity Commission spokesperson said that it "made the disqualification order for Ms Campbell based on the evidence available to us at the time" and that they court agreed "there was serious misconduct and / or mismanagement in the administration of the charity".

They said: "The court recognised that Ms Campbell, the Commission and the law firm concerned were subject to sophisticated deception by one of the other trustees.

"We acknowledge and will reflect on the court's decision and are considering any wider implications for our work.”

The spokesperson added that "because of our regulatory interventions to protect Fashion For Relief’s funds, other charities received almost £250,000 owed to them".

---