‘Britain’s kindest plumber’ accused of faking sob stories to raise £2,000,000
The plumber admits he has 'made mistakes'.
‘Britain’s kindest plumber’ has been accused of being a faker after raising millions of pounds in donations.
James Anderson, who is the founder of social enterprise Depher, is claimed to have made wildly untrue claims about his supposed ‘good deeds’ since 2019.
He even claimed he stopped an elderly woman from killing herself, when in fact she had died years earlier.
The firm, based in Burnley, is a Community Interest Company which provides a defined public benefit.
Depher has supposedly helped the community by providing free food, plumbing work and paying bills through donations.
The company’s list of social media stories made Mr Anderson a viral sensation, bringing in at least £2,000,000 in donations, the BBC reports.
He received letters of thanks from the late Queen and was given the Pride of Manchester award.
Mr Anderson was a guest on multiple TV shows, including Good Morning Britain, BBC Breakfast, The One Show, and Sky News, with hosts praising him for his generosity and calling him a ‘hero plumber’.
Celebrities including Lily Allen and Samantha Giles all donated, with actor Hugh grant giving £75,000.
But an investigation by the BBC found there were a number of misleading and false posts.
One post includes a photo of a woman sat next to Mr Anderson with an emoji covering her face.
The caption read: ‘A lady, 84 years old rang @DepherUK & spoke to myself, she was upset and desperate. She lived 53 miles away in #Preston I drive as fast as i could, when in got there she had a noose ready to commit suicide. All she wanted was hot water! #costoflivingcrisis.’
But the image was used seven times by Depher between February 2021 and August 2023, all with different ages and locations.
The BBC identified her as a woman named Joyce who died in February 2020.
Her daughter Andrea confirmed the posts were ‘complete lies’ – but Mr Anderson had fixed her shower for free.
A victim of domestic abuse was also pictured while being accused of theft without evidence.
Gemma, who accepted help from Mr Anderson in 2022, said photos of her were used without permission and misrepresented her as a thief.
One of the posts said she had no food but ‘bread, margarine and paste’ in her house and claimed she ‘deliberately stole’ from Depher’s fundraising shop – which Gemma says in false.
She told the BBC: ‘It was probably the most vulnerable I have been in my life.
‘They’ve just made something that’s very private to my life very, very public.’
Footage of a vulnerable man in his 90s was posted more than 20 times, with information about his sexuality being publicised.
It was also discovered Depher funds were used to purchase a house and a car.
Although Mr Anderson denied some of the BBC’s allegations, he admitted ‘he made mistakes’.
He said: ‘I know I’ve done it wrong. I apologise. But what can I do? I haven’t got a magic stick. I’m not Harry Potter.’
The main Depher social media account with more than 100,000 followers has since been deleted.
Mr Anderson claimed he made mistake due to ‘bullying, harassment and attacks’ by online trolls.
Company filings show depher purchased a house as an ‘investment property’ for £73,125 and rented out to Mr Anderson’s extended family.
An ex-employee also revealed Mr Anderson had purchased cars using depher money and ‘just drove them around’.
Cash donations doubled to more than £1.2 million from April 2023, but since then Mr anerson has reguarly threatened that Depher would have to cut its services without ‘more support’.
He told the BBC the fall in donations was ‘because of trolls’ – but admitted that particular GoFundMe was ‘misleading’.
He pledged to return some of the donated money following the misleading posts, and is now looking for forgiveness from country.
He said: ‘I apologise, I really do apologise. And I hope you can find it in your hart to accept it. I’m really sorry and I will make amends.’
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