A research charity has been removed from the Fundraising Regulator’s directory after a complainant repeatedly received unwanted clothing collection bags. 

An investigation by the regulator concluded that Leukaemia and Myeloma Research UK and its agency Fundraising Support were in breach of the Code of Fundraising Practice in the delivery of charity bags to a restricted address. 

The complainant told the regulator they did not want to receive charity bags from Fundraising Support on Leukaemia and Myeloma Research UK’s behalf and this was communicated to the charity. 

But the complainant went on to receive two more charity bags, the regulator said. 

In both cases the charity apologised and said the second one “may have been the result of human error”. 

The regulator said the charity and its agency did not respond to requests for up-to-date information for its investigation.

It said the charity referred the regulator to information it had supplied from a previous investigation about a similar complaint. 

“We were unable to see whether our previous recommendations about charity bag deliveries had been followed, and if the charity and the agency had done enough to resolve this complaint,” the investigation report says. 

“As the complainant did not have a ‘no charity bags’ sign displayed, the first delivery was not unreasonable. But the charity and its agency should have respected the complainant’s request not to receive any more charity bags.”

The regulator also said it expected the charity to acknowledge all three of the deliveries received by the complainant, which it declined to do. 

“Based on the second charity bag delivery alone, we found that the agency engaged in unreasonably persistent fundraising, and therefore was in breach of the Code of Fundraising Practice,” the regulator said. 

It said it had similar concerns about the charity’s supervision of the agency in a previous investigation and these issues arose again in this case. 

“However, we were not provided with any new information by either the charity or the agency about this,” it said. 

“We found the charity in breach of the code regarding its responsibilities in monitoring third parties.”

The regulator recommended that the charity put in place quality measures to monitor the work the agency carried out on its behalf, particularly focusing on banned addresses.

It said the charity provided the regulator with “further assurances about improvements it had made to comply with our recommendations”.

But it was removed from the regulator’s director of registered organisations from 1 March, the regulator said. 

The charity and the agency have been contacted for comment.