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Row as McCanns use £1million Madeleine fund to pay their mortgage
Last updated at 15:22pm on 30.10.07Kate and Gerry McCann have used the £1million Find Madeleine fund to pay their mortgage, it was revealed yesterday.
Fund organisers refused to say how much had been spent but confirmed that money donated by the public was made available for the family's living expenses.
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Payments: The McCanns have used part of the Find Madeleine fund to pay their mortgage
Neither has worked since Madeleine vanished on May 3, although Mr McCann is due to return to his £75,000-a-year post as a hospital consultant this week.
Mortgage repayments on the couple's £500,000 detached home in Rothley, Leicestershire, are believed to be £2,000 a month.
The Find Madeleine fund, which has received more than £1.09million in donations from all over the world, was set up primarily to fund a publicity campaign after the little girl vanished on May 3.
It also met legal fees involved in setting up the not-for-profit business, which does not have charitable status.
But the fund's directors - who include colleagues, friends and relatives of the McCanns - ruled that they cannot use it to pay the legal team defending them against Portuguese allegations that they were involved in Madeleine's disappearance.
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Family home: The mortage repayments on the house in Rothley are believed to be around £2,000 a month
That has been met by a separate fund, using donations from wealthy benefactors including Sir Richard Branson.
The salary of the McCanns' spokesman Clarence Mitchell is paid by another millionaire, double-glazing tycoon Brian Kennedy.
But the Find Madeleine fund has paid for other staff, including former campaign manager Justine McGuinness,
In the weeks after Madeleine's disappearance it paid for her parents' campaign trips to Madrid, Amsterdam, Berlin, Washington DC and the Moroccan capital, Rabat.
It was revealed last month that about £300,000 had been spent, and a further £80,000 was paid out this month for a new publicity campaign in Portugal, Spain and Morocco.
Donations have slowed dramatically, however, since the McCanns, both 39, were made official suspects in the case.
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Fund: The campaign to find Madeleine has raised more than £1million
Exact details of where the money has gone will not be disclosed until the end of the financial year when the accounts are made public.
Fund officials said an administrator has been appointed to ensure "the highest standards of transparency and accountability".
Mr Mitchell said last night: "The fund exists to support Kate and Gerry where their living costs would become difficult.
"Gerry is going back to work this week and they hope they will not have to rely on it for their living costs for much longer."
The McCanns have said any surplus money from the fund would be given to charities to help families of other missing children.
Friends of the McCanns have said they are anxious to keep the fund's money for the campaign to find Madeleine.
They denied Mr McCann was returning to work for financial reasons, insisting he wanted to regain a "sense of normality".
He has been on unpaid leave and his wife, a part-time GP, has not been paid while she has been off work.
It is understood that Mr McCann will initially work three half-days a week at Leicester's Glenfields Hospital and will not have any direct contact with patients until his employers believe he is ready.
His return has been approved by the General Medical Council, which regulates the medical profession, but a senior heart specialist warned last night that it could put patients' lives at risk.
The consultant, who did not wish to be named, asked: "How will he be able to concentrate on his work with his daughter missing? It is a high-pressure job and you have to make difficult decisions.
"I can tell you from personal experience that if your mind is not totally on it, it is hard.
"If he is going to be doing procedures where you have to totally focus, the only way you can do it is compartmentalise and if you can't do it, it could be very difficult. He could break down and make a mistake."
The group Patient Concern said Mr McCann should be monitored for at least three months and the public should be able to choose not to be treated by him.
Director Roger Goss said: "It's a good idea he is allowed back, but he should be monitored to ensure he is all right.
"Patients should be allowed the option of not being treated by him while the case has such a high profile. I know it sounds discriminatory but it is not unreasonable."
Reader views (25)
Give them a break, people freely gave them money to allow them to have more time to search for their daughter. Haven't they suffered enough misery.
They'll be getting drilled on what to wear next!
- Andy Montgomery, Tore, Sweden
I'm sorry but this money was not given by hard-working people up and down the land sympathetic to the McCanns' plight, to subsidise their living expenses. It was given to help fund the search for Madeleine and this is what it should be used for. The parents should account for every penny they've taken from the fund and pay the money back. These two doctors, paid for by us through our taxes, are pretty well-off. They should pay their own mortgage.
- Colin, London
Good for them! It's the sort of thing that we have donated the money for.
- Sheila Roberts, Telford, UK
And if there are any complaints... what's the betting that they come from people who have not donated to the fund anyway!
- Sally, Lancs
I don't wish to appear unsympathetic to their predicament but I feel that I must register my objection to Kate and Gerry helping themselves to Maddy's fund to pay their mortgage. There's an old saying "when you're in a hole stop digging!" Why not set up a separate fund?
- Joe, Cambridgershire, UK
Rightly so that Kate and Gerry should use the fund to sustain there living costs, and people who say otherwise should put themselves in the McCanns' shoes. This poor couple have been to hell and back and back again, unable to work to maintain their other children and the family home. They have used and are still using the fund money to keep their darling daughter in the public eye, I find it totally amazing that anybody would think this a controversial move on their part.
- Lynn, Essex
I'm sure everyone who donated can appreciate that these people, who are victims of something terrible, have not worked for some time and have to survive. This is unlike our hundreds of MPs who grab everyone's money to enhance their lifestyles by buying second homes and employing granny to be a secretary etc.
- Michael Dowling, Rainham, UK
What did people think this money was going to be used for? Everyone in the whole world knows the couple are concentrating on getting their little girl back rather than working. Don't you think they would rather be at work waiting to go home to their 3 kids, paying their own mortgage than in their current situation. The money is there to help them in anyway they need. Be realistic please.
- Lynny, Birmingham
Well if they aren't working what were they to do? Have the fairies at the bottom of the garden pay the mortgage? The whole point of the fund surely was so they didn't have to worry about trivia like mortgages while they looked for Madeleine. I paid into the fund and I have no problem with them using some of that money to pay their mortgage.
- John, Dundee, UK
Why doesn't Kate McCann resume work as a highly paid doctor? If they are both getting lucrative salaries there is no need for them to touch the Madeleine fund and that money should go back to the people who donated it, or to a charity specialising in finding missing children. Unbelievable!
- Wooram, Alicante, Spain
I know they have been financially disadvantaged but most people would not have been so lucky to have donations sent to them no matter what situation they were in. Re-mortgage your home or find some other way of raising the funds to pay your bills. How much has actually gone to looking for Madeleine? I know it sounds a bit harsh but the money should be used for what it was meant for.
- Moo, South London, UK
THat fund should also go to all the other couples that have missing children or are we forgetting those poor people. I am sorry Madeleine is missing but so are lots of other children, let's put our money to finding them all not funding people's mortgage payments.
- Helen, Thetford, Norfolk
So what? When you donate money to the fund, you can read about what the money will be used for - and it includes support for the parents. We all know they haven't been working for six months, so obviously they will have no choice but to take advantage of that provision.
If you don't like the provisions the fund will be used for, don't donate. Simple.
- Jen, York, England
Whilst I have every hope, good wish, and empathy for the McCanns to be reunited with their daughter- the use of public monies outside actually searching for Madeleine or paying for police time and expenses is, in my humble opinion, ethically wrong.
They now have a solemn duty to return any private use of this money back into the trust fund it was originally set up for.
It is an insult to those families who also have lost children...
- Christina Manfredi, Chelmsford, England
Utterly outrageous! Completely against the spirit of many people's contribution. Shameful!
You have to look quite carefully to see that they can legally use the funds this way on the site.
- James, London
Outrageous behaviour! I am sure that Richard Branson now knows what a mistake he made!
- Jon, Edgware, Middx
Hold on, they were earning £110,000 per year between them, the mortgage payments on a £460,000 house would only be around £2,500 on a 100% mortgage which would still leave them around £3,000 for themselves.
- Trevor Roll, London
It's not fair. A lot of of us are struggling and have worse circumstances but have never had such privileges.
- A, Surbiton
For goodness sake - leave them alone!
- Jo Downes, Beds, UK
I cannot see a problem with them using some of the fund money to pay their mortgage - I know if the same awful thing happened to me I wouldn't be able to work and if I didnt work I too would not be able to pay my mortgage. It's one of the last things that you want to have to worry about but practicalities do have to be looked after too - so when Madeleine comes home she has a home to come back to.
- Catherine Bachelor, Warwickshire
What's the problem, the familly have to live and pay bills etc.
- Brian, Wiltshire
Why are the people of this country so worried about the use of the fund it was given to the family to help in any way they seem fit.
It is better than sitting in a bank earning interest.
- Michael Charles Witts, UK
This is infuriating! I contributed money to the fund back in June, thinking it would facilitate the search for Maddy. I was told I was donating to a charity. I now have learned that it is not a charity but a private company. Also that my money is being used to pay for the McCanns mortgage. This is not why I gave money and I think most people who gave their hard earned pennies would agree with me. I'm sure I'm not alone in feeling both angry and uneasy.
- Mike Hautacam, Lincoln, Lincolnshire
This is what they need to do to keep finding Madeleine. They don't want to cause any more disruption to their other 2 children, so why not? People gave money to help fund the search, but how can the parents help if they haven't got a stable home environment?
- Suzanne, Surrey
I paid money into Maddy's fund. I have absolutely no problem with the McCanns using it in any way they see fit. They will do their best for Maddy, I am sure, and that's good enough for me.
- Martin, Cheltenham
