The now-familiar debate about whether even the wealthy should have to pay tax before giving to charity has taken on a whole new meaning this week as a 13-foot replica of comedian Jimmy Carr’s head goes on sale on eBay to raise funds for a Lancashire charity.
Anyone who has not been living in an underground bunker this month will have heard the furore over Jimmy Carr’s ‘legal-but-immoral’ tax affairs. But now the social welfare charity Recycling Lives UK could benefit after a local architectural salvage yard decided to auction off a massive model of the comedian’s head.
Ribble Reclamation bought the replica for £2,000 last year after its owners spotted it in a model-maker’s workshop. It had been created for adverts to promote the new Walker’s Crisps flavour ‘Jimmy Con Carne’ during last year’s Children in Need, and reportedly cost £70,000 to make.
Ribble owner Paul Johnson said: “With all this stuff in the press about Jimmy’s tax affairs, we thought it would be nice to try and flog it on eBay to make a few bob for charity. It’s what it was made for in the first place, after all.”
According to the description on eBay, the fibreglass model has “a back door entrance with stairs, a moveable jaw with enough room for about ten people inside.”
Recycling Lives UK provides support, accommodation and training for long-term unemployed people. Its marketing manager, Adam Ainscough, said the model would be the most unusual corporate donation the charity had ever received.
“It’ll be interesting to see if anyone stumps up the money for the head – it’d certainly make an interesting feature for anyone’s home or garden,” he said.
“We’re hoping that Jimmy Carr will spot it and decide to cough up, but it may be that there’s a big fan out there who’ll nab it instead. Either way, we’re really grateful for the donation and we look forward to seeing who wins the auction.”
The auction will end at 1.14pm on Monday 2 July. The winning bidder must collect it in person from Ribble’s yard in Preston. The head has a reserve price of £3,000 and as of this morning it had attracted no bids.
