Row as McCanns use £1million Madeleine fund to pay their mortgage
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Row as McCanns use £1million Madeleine fund to pay their mortgage
London, Wednesday 09.03.11
Row as McCanns use £1million Madeleine fund to pay their mortgage
Last updated at 15:22pm on 30.10.07
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Kate and Gerry McCann have used the £1million Find Madeleine fund to pay their mortgage, it was revealed yesterday.
Fund organisers refused to say how much had been spent but confirmed that money donated by the public was made available for the family's living expenses.
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Payments: The McCanns have used part of the Find Madeleine fund to pay their mortgage
Neither has worked since Madeleine vanished on May 3, although Mr McCann is due to return to his £75,000-a-year post as a hospital consultant this week.
Mortgage repayments on the couple's £500,000 detached home in Rothley, Leicestershire, are believed to be £2,000 a month.
The Find Madeleine fund, which has received more than £1.09million in donations from all over the world, was set up primarily to fund a publicity campaign after the little girl vanished on May 3.
It also met legal fees involved in setting up the not-for-profit business, which does not have charitable status.
But the fund's directors - who include colleagues, friends and relatives of the McCanns - ruled that they cannot use it to pay the legal team defending them against Portuguese allegations that they were involved in Madeleine's disappearance.
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Family home: The mortage repayments on the house in Rothley are believed to be around £2,000 a month
That has been met by a separate fund, using donations from wealthy benefactors including Sir Richard Branson.
The salary of the McCanns' spokesman Clarence Mitchell is paid by another millionaire, double-glazing tycoon Brian Kennedy.
But the Find Madeleine fund has paid for other staff, including former campaign manager Justine McGuinness,
In the weeks after Madeleine's disappearance it paid for her parents' campaign trips to Madrid, Amsterdam, Berlin, Washington DC and the Moroccan capital, Rabat.
It was revealed last month that about £300,000 had been spent, and a further £80,000 was paid out this month for a new publicity campaign in Portugal, Spain and Morocco.
Donations have slowed dramatically, however, since the McCanns, both 39, were made official suspects in the case.
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Fund: The campaign to find Madeleine has raised more than £1million
Exact details of where the money has gone will not be disclosed until the end of the financial year when the accounts are made public.
Fund officials said an administrator has been appointed to ensure "the highest standards of transparency and accountability".
Mr Mitchell said last night: "The fund exists to support Kate and Gerry where their living costs would become difficult.
"Gerry is going back to work this week and they hope they will not have to rely on it for their living costs for much longer."
The McCanns have said any surplus money from the fund would be given to charities to help families of other missing children.
Friends of the McCanns have said they are anxious to keep the fund's money for the campaign to find Madeleine.
They denied Mr McCann was returning to work for financial reasons, insisting he wanted to regain a "sense of normality".
He has been on unpaid leave and his wife, a part-time GP, has not been paid while she has been off work.
It is understood that Mr McCann will initially work three half-days a week at Leicester's Glenfields Hospital and will not have any direct contact with patients until his employers believe he is ready.
His return has been approved by the General Medical Council, which regulates the medical profession, but a senior heart specialist warned last night that it could put patients' lives at risk.
The consultant, who did not wish to be named, asked: "How will he be able to concentrate on his work with his daughter missing? It is a high-pressure job and you have to make difficult decisions.
"I can tell you from personal experience that if your mind is not totally on it, it is hard.
"If he is going to be doing procedures where you have to totally focus, the only way you can do it is compartmentalise and if you can't do it, it could be very difficult. He could break down and make a mistake."
The group Patient Concern said Mr McCann should be monitored for at least three months and the public should be able to choose not to be treated by him.
Director Roger Goss said: "It's a good idea he is allowed back, but he should be monitored to ensure he is all right.
"Patients should be allowed the option of not being treated by him while the case has such a high profile. I know it sounds discriminatory but it is not unreasonable."
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23418650-row-as-mccanns-use-1million-madeleine-fund-to-pay-their-mortgage.do

candyfloss- Super duper Moderator
- Posts: 7929
Join date: 2009-11-27
Age: 59
Re: Row as McCanns use £1million Madeleine fund to pay their mortgage
Protecting their image has absolutely naff all to do with finding their daughter. There is no excuse for them using the funds in this way. Naturally though, this fact hasn't been touched in the media.

C_Bass- Posts: 3
Join date: 2011-05-16
Re: Row as McCanns use £1million Madeleine fund to pay their mortgage
http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/mccanns-cannot-win-in-court-of-public-opinion-1210780.html
Gerry was earning approximately £75k gross (net after tax is £50k) and Kate was on £55 (net after tax is £38.5k). Of course they would have also got Child Benefit of £2194 per year. Please note the tax calculations are using 2011 tax rates but they wont be much different).
So totalling net earnings of over £87k between them and mortgage to pay was £24k per year.
Leaving them available to spend £63k on the other bills etc.
so WHY were they so skint when the went on holiday to PDL in May 2007.

Gillyspot- Posts: 1130
Join date: 2011-06-13
Re: Row as McCanns use £1million Madeleine fund to pay their mortgage
some expensive habits.

Cherry- Posts: 1939
Join date: 2009-12-01
Location: Emirates Stadium
Re: Row as McCanns use £1million Madeleine fund to pay their mortgage

littlepixie- Posts: 1062
Join date: 2009-11-29
Re: Row as McCanns use £1million Madeleine fund to pay their mortgage
Cherry wrote:They could have been living above their means if they were skint or maybe had
some expensive habits.
You would borrow from family or (if you didnt want them to know how skint you were) a Bank and probably cut off both your own hands before you would ever think of touching money meant for finding your missing daughter (if you had morals or werent deep in the do-do).

littlepixie- Posts: 1062
Join date: 2009-11-29
Re: Row as McCanns use £1million Madeleine fund to pay their mortgage
I think that once they started getting the offers of donations from the general public they thought - what an opportunity to make some money as they seem to spend it like water.
That could be why Gerry went back to work for but only for 3 days (net wages around £38k) to give the appearance that they weren't "milking" the fund.

Gillyspot- Posts: 1130
Join date: 2011-06-13
Re: Row as McCanns use £1million Madeleine fund to pay their mortgage
littlepixie wrote:Cherry wrote:They could have been living above their means if they were skint or maybe had
some expensive habits.
You would borrow from family or (if you didnt want them to know how skint you were) a Bank and probably cut off both your own hands before you would ever think of touching money meant for finding your missing daughter (if you had morals or werent deep in the do-do).
It's like the passage in the book where Kate says she feels "guilty" (I don't think she knows what that is) to buy strawberries in a more expensive grocer (forgot the name, sorry I am not familiar with store names and cloting mark names you have to drop to be accepted in yuppie world).
She should feel guilty. If you see what kind of people donated I am sure that quite a few did eat the cheaper strawberries, or skipped them completely, to support the fund.
Somewhere on here someone posted about the "class" or rather the "no class" these pathetic parents have. If they had any class they would have made sure to make at least the same sacrifices as some of their donors.
Of course Kate put that in so the world would say: please Kate, buy the expensive stuff you deserve it".
IMO Kate should put every penny she has in the search for Madeleine.
She never will, not only because she is a money wolf, but because she knows there is nothing to be found.

lj- Posts: 753
Join date: 2009-12-01
Re: Row as McCanns use £1million Madeleine fund to pay their mortgage

onthefence- Posts: 9
Join date: 2011-05-29
Re: Row as McCanns use £1million Madeleine fund to pay their mortgage
onthefence wrote:It's been suggested that the McCanns were skint which is why they quickly used the Madeleine Fund to pay their mortgage. Kate hasn't gone back to work so does that mean they are living off the public donations?
Well the mortgage will still be the same, or could even have increased. That is if they still have a mortgage on the house. Utilities are more expensive, Kate still has her hair done, the twins will be growing fast and need shoes and clothes replacing frequently. So just on Gerry's salary which in my world is a huge sum, if they couldn't manage before how do they manage now?
Ah yes donations and Kate's book


Nina- Posts: 426
Join date: 2011-06-16
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