Even Bono’s old hand-me-downs may not be safe from charity thieves

BONO, it seems, has finally found what he was looking for — an old cowboy hat, a sweatshirt, a pair of old trousers and earrings.

There was also a video tape and monitor, rosary beads, hundreds of photographs, a few mugs and what was described as a ‘Christmas decoration’.

I leave it to your own imagination as to why the rosary beads was on the Joshua Tree tour, but even as a fashion illiterate it seems to me unlikely that a pair of metal hooped earrings, a green sweatshirt and a pair of black trousers would actually go with a Stetson.

As the ranchers in Texas might disparagingly remark about a fellah, probably George Dubya: “He’s all Stetson and no cattle”.

Most people would gratefully leave them in a bag at the front door to be collected by a charity and be rid of them, especially if they were about 20 years old. With the possible exception of the rosary beads, what possible use would anyone have for such outdated gear?

Not so Bono, who is hardly stuck for something to wear. His first reaction was to go to court to get his few old bits and pieces back.

You might think judges had better things to do than decide who owns the hat, trousers, sweatshirt and the rest of the paraphernalia, but they were a matter of grave concern in the High Court one day this week and three days last month.

The assorted collection of old clothing and knick-knacks ended up in that hallowed, and expensive, institution because the band’s former stylist, Lola Cashman, assumed she had been given the ensemble and the accessories as a freebie, and tried to flog some of it through Christies.

Presumably, she reckoned that because the stuff once belonged to U2 it was more valuable than her local pawnbroker might have thought.

U2 probably thought so, too.

She claimed the items were given to her when she worked on the band’s Joshua Tree tour in the 1980s.

Everything, including Bono’s Stetson, was reckoned to be worth about €5,000.

The band issued civil proceedings against her in the Dublin Circuit Civil Court, which found in their favour and ordered that the items be returned. She then appealed to the High Court, and we know the outcome.

Ms Cashman lost again, but the enormously wealthy band had the good sense to announce they weren’t going to pursue her for their costs arising from either of the court hearings.

Like poverty, Bono obviously wanted this incident to become history.

The legal proceedings have been going on for about five years, although not entirely before a judge.

Although Bono knows the value of old clothes, the multimillionaire who has lectured the world on how to Make Poverty History, and his band, moved their royalties to the Netherlands when the Government announced a cap on artists’ tax exemption earlier this year.

One-third of their income is tax-free, and that alone would eradicate a fair amount of poverty here at home.

So, quite frankly, it’s a bit much to hear the likes of mega-rich Bono tell us that the Government should dig deeper into our pockets for his favourite causes in overseas aid, no matter how commendable they are.

The EU Survey on Income and Living Conditions last year found that over 400,000 Irish people were living in poverty and a further one million were at risk of falling into poverty.

That is an unbelievable, but true, fact in one of the richest countries in the world.

At least, we are told we are a very rich nation, but the unpalatable truth is that far from everybody enjoys the good life here.

Consider this in one of the wealthiest countries in the world: nearly 10% of the people who took part in that survey admitted there was a day in the previous two weeks when they did not have a substantial meal because of a lack of money.

This didn’t happen in the Dark Ages — this was only last year.

The one million people at risk of falling into poverty have an income of €185, or less, each week. Yet we can talk about giving a salary increase to people on anything from €150,000 to €200,000 a year.

A measure of just how wealthy Ireland has become can be gauged from the fact that Finance Minister Brian Cowen has between €55 billion and €60 billion to disburse next year.

Despite his assurances that there will be no pre-election spending spree, you can rest assured that a large slice of that money will be spent on election promises.

Despite their predilection for old clothes, U2 are not roaming the country robbing bags of clothes left out for the benefit of charitable organisations.

But there are others who prey on people’s good intentions and literally capitalise on their charity.

It transpires that organised gangs, who obviously believe that charity begins at home, are roaming housing estates and helping themselves to the sacks that are left out for bona fide organisations.

They can make as much as €1,000 per collection, — money that’s badly needed by these charities to fund their vital work.

The problem is particularly acute at this time of year, with the expense of Christmas looming. Stock in charity shops is seriously depleted.

Things like clothes and toys are disappearing off their shelves and, in fact, many items never even reach the shelves because they are collected by these door-to-door chancers.

They don’t just snatch bags that are left for the likes of Concern or St Vincent de Paul; some of them use fake leaflets so that householders are led to believe they are putting together a bag of clothes for a genuine charity.

What they do then is sell the quality items at car boot sales or export them for sale in markets safely removed from their original sources.

Either way, they are robbing badly needed money from these organisations.

And modern lifestyles are helping them to get away with it. In very many cases the bags are left outside the door in the morning by a couple going to work and, in all probability, the stuff is gone when they return.

They assume nothing is wrong, that the bag of goodies has been picked up by the designated charity.

They are unaware that some cowboys will soon convert it into a tidy profit. It’s money for nothing.

The charities estimate they are losing out to the tune of €1,000 of stock each time the thieves beat them to the collection round.

In fact, it’s become so serious that Deirdre Morgan of Concern in Cork said rogue collectors were ‘blitzing’ estates with leaflets and staging regular collections.

There is also the fact that some people couldn’t care less where the old clothes go to as long as they disappear and don’t clutter up the wardrobe.

Most people would be concerned that the bags go to charity, but the rip-off risks are only too real for as long as collections are made by day.

The gardaí have suggested they take place in the evenings so that volunteers can do the rounds in person.

That’s obviously the best way to put the bogus collectors out of business.