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A Statement from the Woodhall Spa 1940s Festival Community Interest Company

Monday 16th December 2024

Following a year-long investigation by Lincolnshire Police, the Woodhall Spa 1940s Festival Community Interest Company (CIC) is relieved to learn that Graham Keegan has been issued with a conditional caution on 27 November for fraud by abuse of position by mishandling Festival funds.

The CIC is finally able to address the matter publicly having been subject to rumours and conjecture through social media about the closure of the Festival.

As a former member of our Committee for a number of years, Mr Keegan had been entrusted to manage the Festival’s finances and report to his fellow Directors and Committee members on the financial position on a monthly basis. Following a meeting on 2 October 2023, the other Festival Directors became concerned about the exact financial position of the company and started an investigation involving hundreds of hours scrutinising paperwork and reconstructing accounts. When they realised that substantial sums of money were missing, the Directors immediately alerted Lincolnshire Police for the case to be investigated.

It was shortly after the discovery, that the Committee had to make the painful decision to close the Festival. This was in part due to the ongoing increase in costs matched with the uncertainty over the Festival’s future financial position and concerns as to how the case would progress, privately and publicly. The decision was made to announce the closure in November 2023, at a time when we were unable to give complete clarity of the situation due to the ongoing Police investigation. Everything that we said at that time remains true; rising costs across the Festival’s infrastructure were becoming too high to maintain the Festival as a free event. The situation was exacerbated by a reduced income particularly from parking, with visitors seeking alternative parking which often undercut the official parking charges. However, the missing funds were a significant contribution to the decision to shut it down at the end of 2023.

Following the announcement, the backlash across social media aimed at the Festival team was both disappointing and upsetting. The Festival Committee is made up of a number of dedicated, hardworking and talented local people who gave up hundreds of hours each year to plan and hold the event. Whilst dealing privately with the shock of learning that someone they had trusted had abused his position, the Directors were also liaising with the Police and trying to manage the online criticism from cancelling the Festival. The Committee, who were unable to comment on the criminal investigation, were left unable to reply to the sometimes-unpleasant comments made against them on social media platforms. We hope today’s full and frank statement helps end any ongoing speculation. Furthermore, following legal advice we have made the decision to name Mr Keegan in our statement to protect the rest of our Committee from wrongful identification.

Fourteen months on from the discovery of the fraud, we are pleased to know that Lincolnshire Police have now concluded their investigation, and we would like to thank them for their assistance in bringing the matter to a satisfactory close.

We have also been successful in recovering all the misappropriated funds and whilst it is not enough to resurrect the Festival, we will be creating a grant scheme for good causes, groups and community projects that will benefit the village and people of Woodhall Spa. We feel this is the best possible legacy the Festival could leave, after 11 years of fantastic events and many happy memories created for thousands of people. We will publish details of the new scheme in the coming weeks.

Thank you for all your support over the years. Please do continue to visit our village to commemorate the British Homefront and enjoy the peace and beauty of Woodhall Spa.

The Woodhall Spa 1940s Festival CIC

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UKRAINE SUPPORT FUND

£5,000 grant fund to help support Ukrainian refugees living in the Woodhall Spa community.
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