ShelterBox founder and former CEO, Tom Henderson, has lost his appeal against allegations that led to his dismissal from the charity, but insists he will continue to contest them.

The disaster relief charity’s board removed Henderson with immediate effect in on 24 July, announcing that the trustees had agreed unanimously to dismiss Henderson from his role.

No reason was given in the statement at the time, but ShelterBox disclosed last week that Henderson tried to place a £650,000 contract with a company linked to his son, a move that ShelterBox found to be in breach of its related-parties purchase policy.

Now, following an unsuccessful appeal, Henderson has broken his silence and speaking with BBC News Cornwall said: “We [my son and I ] truthfully have nothing to hide. We strongly deny the claims made by the charity and we believe they [ShelterBox] have no evidence.”

In a statement issued by Tom and John Henderson last week, they “strenously denied” all the accusations, with Henderson Senior pointing out that similar orders had been placed with his son’s companies in the past.

Henderson Senior has now told the Cornish Guardian that he will continue to fight, having made a promise to his wife Jane, who died within a day of his dismissal. 

Tribunal to be held in 2013

Ian Munday, chair of trustees at ShelterBox, is quoted by the same source as saying: “Tom was unable to provide us any satisfactory answer to our questions as exactly what the relationships were between the companies he was placing orders with and his son John's business.

“We were very concerned that as we are spending donors' money, we have to make sure we spend it correctly and properly and there's no serious conflict of interest.”

In November, BBC News Cornwall revealed that Henderson would be taking ShelterBox to a tribunal, due to be held in Exeter, Devon in 2013. The charity responded to this development by saying it would "defend any claim robustly".

ShelterBox, which sends out aid boxes to international crisis zones, released a statement at the time that read: “The charity must confirm that its board of trustees followed sound legal advice throughout this matter.”

Serious incident report was submitted to Commission

An official announcement on the ShelterBox website regarding the reasons for Henderson’s removal, posted on 16 November, reads: “The basis for dismissal was made up of a number of factors, primarily: failing to abide by the related party transaction policy; not giving an adequate explanation of those transactions; neglecting the charity’s intellectual property rights; and ultimately putting the charity at risk through his conduct and lack of capability.”

The website statement also reveals that the charity submitted a serious incident report to the Charity Commission on 8 August, following the sector regulator’s guidelines which state “a charity must submit such a report if the charity is at risk or there is a potential risk, that will endanger or damage the business, assets, reputation or services of that charity”.

John Leach, previously ShelterBox's operations manager, was appointed stand-in CEO, and remains in the position to date.

Trustee resigned over 'mistake'

In a further twist, BBC News reported in August that one of ShelterBox’s trustees, Sir John Banham, resigned, claiming that Henderson’s removal had not been unanimous as he was not in favour of it. He called it “a mistake” by the charity.

Banham also revealed that Henderson was offered the role of president, but that this offer was later withdrawn.

Tom Henderson was awarded an OBE in 2010 for outstanding contribution to charity and humanitarian work. He co-founded ShelterBox in 2000.