A MAJOR Andover-based charity has been stripped of a £12,500 prize after it allegedly breached data protection rules to fake votes in a UK-wide competition.

Enham Trust has been stripped of its win in the 2016 Marks & Spencer Energy Community Energy Fund, following a “thorough investigation” by the High Street giant into an allegation the charity submitted hundreds of fake votes in the competition.

The allegation was made by a former employee of the charity, who claims they witnessed a fellow staff member entering the fake votes using a list of e-mail addresses, purchased for use by the charity’s social enterprises.

M&S subsequently began an investigation into the claims and this week announced it had stripped the disability charity of its £12,500 prize, which it was awarded in the Judge’s Choice category.

In a statement released to the Advertiser, the charity unreservedly apologised and condemned the actions of an “overzealous and misguided” member of staff.

Enham Trust’s chairman of trustees, Khalid Aziz, said: “I am deeply disappointed that apparently our well-established rules on data protection have been breached in this way.

“We wholly understand and accept that in the circumstances it was appropriate for Marks & Spencer to withdraw the grant.

“The investigation is still ongoing and at its conclusion, if appropriate, disciplinary action will be taken.

“The breach of our rules should not have happened and on behalf of the trust I apologise unreservedly.

“The whole organisation will learn from this unhappy event and that data protection is to be taken very seriously.”

The charity added that it immediately launched an investigation following the allegations and has co-operated fully with Marks & Spencer throughout.

The allegation was originally made by a former employee of the charity, who cited it as one of the reasons they resigned.

The ex-staff member says the issue began during the competition’s public voting stage in September.

According to their account, the former employee claims that the charity had fallen behind its rivals in the polls, leading to the suggestion of using the charity’s purchased data.

In an email, seen by the Advertiser, the data was then passed between employees through a collection of spreadsheets.

In total, the spreadsheets included over 7,000 email addresses.

Later in the email, one employee said that they had “concerns” about the implications of using the data and asked a fellow staff member to obtain permission.

It is alleged that the data was then copied and pasted into the competition’s website, submitting up to 1,000 fake votes over the course of three days.

The charity collected a total of 1,800 votes in the competition.

An employee later resigned following the alledged incident and submitted a complaint to Enham Trust, as well as both Marks and Spencer and government regulator, the Charity Commission.

The Advertiser subsequently contacted the Charity Commission, who confirmed that “concerns had been raised” against Enham Trust.

However a spokesperson said that it had not opened a statutory inquiry into the charity at this point.

Meanwhile, an M&S spokesperson said: “Following a thorough investigation, we have taken the decision to withdraw the prize awarded to Enham Trust.”

Enham Trust entered the competition, launched by M&S Energy as a way of promoting community renewable energy schemes, back in May 2016.

The disability charity was later selected as one of the 125 entries shortlisted by a panel including M&S and SSE.

The shortlisted projects were then put forward to a public vote, with the 19 regional winners announced at the end of October 2016.

Judges also awarded £12,500 prizes to a further seven projects, including Enham Trust’s entry.

M&S later published the names of the winners on its website, but it has since removed Enham Trust from that list.

The charity planned to use the money to build an ‘Energy Centre’ for its Cedar Park development.

Enham Trust says the energy centre will help to power a state-of-the-art Neurological Rehabilitation Unit, as well as 202 accessible homes.