Plymouth (cult) Intergroup – fraud allegations (update)

We understand that not only has it been alleged that £14,000 was embezzled from the Plymouth (cult) Intergroup account but also that local group contributions sent to the intergroup have been diverted to other parts of the country to help pay the costs of bringing an “American 'Globe Trotting' AA Personality to the UK”. Our guess is that this would be Clancy (although there are plenty of other such parasites 'free-loading' off AA. Such payments are contrary to AA guidelines).

Source: AA Conference 2010 – report (p. 60)

It is also alleged that the Intergroup Treasurer has admitted forging the Chairman's signature on cheques. The latter should also have been 'signing off' financial statements presented to Intergroup by the Treasurer after first checking them against bank statements. They did not. Clearly financial mismanagement is another issue to be confronted by this 'rogue' intergroup.

Our correspondent also indicates that the Vice Chair of the Plymouth Intergroup, “being independent of the Intergroup Bank Account, should have reported the fraud to the police as soon as he was made aware of it, but as he is also a member of the RTR [Plymouth Road to Recovery cult group] he would have been instructed [allegedly] to involve himself in the dishonest cover up.”

Moreover, we are informed “there is no evidence to support the claim that the treasurer has a gambling problem”.

Finally the observation is made (with which we entirely concur) that: “Any criminal offences committed in AA by AA members should be reported to the police”. For our part we would strongly urge any members who have any information relating to the above to contact the police via 101 (non-emergency number) immediately. We should also point out that failure to report a crime may in some instances lead (where the defendant is found guilty) to a charge of “accessory after the fact”.

We have not yet reported the matter ourselves to the police in Plymouth in order to give South West Region, the General Service Office in York (who have been informed of these events by us), and even Plymouth Intergroup, the opportunity to comply with the law and report the alleged crime. However we will be contacting the authorities shortly with this information. We will also inform them that all three service bodies are already aware (or have been made aware) of the alleged fraud.

As we have said before … the clock is ticking.....

Cheers

The Fellas (Friends of Alcoholics Anonymous)

PS Thanks to our correspondents