Husband who offered his £700,000 home as cancer charity raffle prize in honour of his late wife is arrested for fraud

• Top prize changed from luxury home and Mercedes to £11,000 in cash
• Tickets cost £25 each and just £1,000 was donated to charity

A widower has been arrested over an alleged charity raffle scam in which the top prize – his  country home – was later withdrawn.
Mel Yates, 73, convinced neighbours that he would give away the £700,000 house and its four acres of land to raise money for Marie Curie Cancer Care, which looked after his wife in her final days.
The retired horse breeder also offered up his silver Mercedes as a prize.

Arrested: Mel Yates holds raffle tickets outside the home he planned to sell off as a prize to raise money for charity in honour of his dead wife

Death: Tessa Yates died of a brain tumour at the couple's home in 2009

However, after reportedly selling 2,500 tickets at £25 each, which would have raised £62,500, the competition prize was changed and the eventual winner – a woman from Malaga – was given £11,000 cash.

On top of this, just £1,000 was donated to charity.
After complaints from villagers who had bought tickets, police last week raided Mr Yates’s home, arresting him and raffle administrator Penny Cook, 54, on suspicion of fraud.
They have since been released on bail as enquiries continue, with Mr Yates denying any ‘con’.
Launching the raffle two years ago, Mr Yates, of Gorsley, Herefordshire, said he was not looking for personal gain but simply wanted to give something back to Marie Curie because of the kindness the charity had shown to his wife of 30 years, Tessa.
She died in 2009 from a brain tumour.
To appeal to ticket buyers, he offered as prizes his £48,000 Mercedes 320 estate and Hillside Cottage, which has its own stables, bought so Mrs Yates, who died aged 53, could ride regularly.
They were also told that profits from the raffle would be shared with the Injured Jockeys Fund, another charity close to Mrs Yates’s heart.
The raffle tickets were sold through the website winourprize.com, which has since been shut down.
Mr Yates said he hoped to sell 35,000 tickets at £25 each but, as a disclaimer, wrote in the terms and conditions of sale that if this figure was not met the house would not be given away.
Instead the money raised would be converted into a cash draw.

 

Despite the warning, buyers were furious when they were informed seven weeks before the draw in late 2010 that the house was no longer to be offered as a prize.
In a letter to ticket holders, Mr Yates said sales had been ‘decimated’ by bank bureaucracy, something denied by Barclays, which managed the payments.

Prize: The £700,000 luxury country home home in Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire, could have raised £285,000 for Marie Curie and the Injured Jockeys Fund

Comfortable: The living room inside the property. Having sold tickets for the raffle, the top prize was then changed to £11,000 in cash and £1,000 was donated to charity

The competition was changed so that entrants had to write in 25 words why they deserved the money, with a winner given £11,000 and £500 donated to both of the charities.
After they were refused refunds, ticket buyers threatened legal action and contacted police. Officers are now investigating the total amount raised by Mr Yates from ticket sales.
Confronted previously about the allegations against him, Mr Yates said: ‘I’m not a con man. I’m devastated it hasn’t worked out as I had hoped.’