Naomi Campbell won her legal battle in London on October 1: a three-judge panel of the First-Tier Tribunal overturned the five-year disqualification from serving as a charity trustee that the Charity Commission for England and Wales imposed on her in September 2024. The appeal followed a four-day hearing in central London in June. According to PA Media and Sky News, it is only the second time a Charity Commission trustee disqualification has been overturned by a tribunal.
The case began with a three-year inquiry the Commission opened in 2021 into Fashion for Relief, the charity Campbell founded in 2005 and registered as a UK charity in 2015. Investigators found "multiple instances of misconduct and/or mismanagement": between April 2016 and July 2022, just 8.5% of the charity's expenditure went to charitable grants. Of the £4.8 million raised over five years, partner organisations Save the Children and the Mayor's Fund for London received only about 10% of the proceeds. Charity money was spent on luxuries — a five-star Cannes hotel stay in May 2018 with room service, spa treatments and cigarettes, private flights, private security — deemed not "reasonable expenses." Fellow trustee Bianka Hellmich, a lawyer, received roughly £290,000 in unauthorised "consultancy fees"; evidence at the hearing suggested the true figure exceeded £500,000. Hellmich was banned for nine years and Veronica Chou for four; neither appealed. The Commission recovered more than £400,000, of which £250,000 reached the two partner charities. Fashion for Relief was removed from the charity register on 15 March 2024 and wound up.
The tribunal did not dispute that "serious misconduct and mismanagement" occurred — but found its worst features, including the unauthorised payments to Hellmich, the financial mismanagement and the misuse of funds, "resulted from Ms Hellmich's conduct and were concealed from Ms Campbell." Hellmich, the panel found, "used forged documents," set up a fake email account purporting to belong to Campbell to impersonate her, and "deceived professional advisers and the Charity Commission." Campbell, the judges wrote, "was not involved in, and did not know of, that conduct" — and "for the avoidance of doubt, we accept that both Ms Campbell's evidence, as well as her conduct during the operation of the Charity, was entirely honest." The panel rejected the Commission's lawyers' claim that Campbell was focused on "controlling the media narrative." Campbell accepted "ultimate responsibility" for poor minute-keeping and late accounts, but the judges held that, given "the sustained deception" she faced, it did not make her unfit to be a trustee.
"I'm so grateful to the tribunal and the judges for taking the time to hear my side, look at the evidence, and see the truth of what happened," Campbell said in a statement. "Giving back has been part of who I am, so having that questioned hurt deeply. Now I can get back to what matters most to me: being there for the people and communities I've always wanted to serve." Her lawyer, Michelle Duncan, called it "a significant vindication," saying the tribunal found Campbell's account truthful and her conduct "entirely honest and professional" — she had been deceived by someone she trusted.
The Charity Commission said it made the disqualification "based on the evidence available to us at the time," noting the court recognised that Campbell, the Commission and the law firm involved were all subject to "sophisticated deception" by the other trustee — a matter it referred to the Metropolitan Police when it became aware of it. "We acknowledge and will reflect on the court's decision and are considering any wider implications for our work," a spokesperson said. The 56-year-old supermodel is now free to serve as a charity trustee in England and Wales again — whether the Fashion for Relief name is revived is her call.