Wesley Hall Manchester 'Angel'?

Article published: Tuesday, November 3rd 2015

Since Wesley Hall s expulsion by the other residents of the Squatted Stock Exchange building over his dictatorial leadership style, the Manchester Angels leader Wesley Hall has accused several homeless rights activists of similar allegations to those that have been made against him. Meanwhile concerns are still ongoing as to Hall s online fundraising activities.

Wesley Hall s leadership had been criticised by the Love Activists and other individuals inside and outside the squat, ultimately resulting in him being forced out of the building by Gary Neville s security. Despite this, no apology, or recognition of his errors was made.

Instead he issued a bizarre statement via social media, referring to himself in the third person, in which he claimed there was a conspiracy against him involving the right-wing media, homeless people and activists. Some people are making up lies, fuelling the right-wing media and trying to turn people against our project manager Wesley Hall. Even Neville s own security were suspected, The security were regularly speaking to Ryan McPhee and Wesley Dove Fellow homeless activists outside the building and wouldn t be surprised if the whole thing was planned

He turned on his fellow activists, These fellow campaigners are simply people who want some lime light A sad reality And aren t friends of Wesley Hall And don t share his visions for the project Hall s accusation that the other homeless rights activists were simply people who want some lime light seems particularly confusing considering media attention has focused almost exclusively on Wesley Hall, with some even branding the movement The Wesley Hall Show – Wesley has appeared on various radio and TV channels including The BBC and Channel 4, and on the 5^th of October even staged his own promotional event An evening with Wesley Hall.

Hall went on to claim that one particular activist Adam was a P.R.

man who was trying to take over, This P.R. person now wants to take over. And wanted to use the campaign for his own P.R.

Adams PR tactics seem to involve no more than a few quotes in an MEN article that shed some doubt on Wesley Halls angel status. Wesley s PR tactics include massive use of social media, accusing others of anything he s accused of and creating groups which are extremely similar to established official organizations and charities. For example, Wesley Hall s Manchester Angels is very similar in name to the Manchester Street Angels a CNI registered charity, and both groups claim to have been founded to protect the homeless following the death of Adam Pickup.

Wesley Hall runs at least 6 facebook pages. Two personal pages; Wesley PP Hall https://www.facebook.com/homesnotbanks¹, Wesley Hall: The Voice Of Treason https://www.facebook.com/projectingreality/?fref=ts². Alongside at least four community pages declaring himself project manager of Manchester Angels https://www.facebook.com/streetangelsUK/?fref=ts³, Help the Homeless East Lancashire https://www.facebook.com/homesnotspikes/?fref=ts⁴, Help the Homeless Preston https://www.facebook.com/Help-The-Homeless-Preston-1621245611465398/?fref=ts⁵ and Help The Homeless: North West https://www.facebook.com/iwantchange/?fref=ts⁶.

Adam runs one, Adam Whelan https://www.facebook.com/adam.whelan.188?fref=ts⁷.

Hall suggested that Adam had stolen money from one of the original homeless camps; This particular lad Adam, who s quoted in the M.E.N. had been holding money for the camp in April and it went missing. Hall also accused Ryan McPhee of the Ark project, which was set up as an on the street homeless shelter, of using over 16,000 of cash donations from the public to buy himself nice clothes and fund his spice addiction.

Ryan claimed Wesley, has taken around 200- 300 per day in donations That s over 16.5K during the time he was Oxford Road Ryan states that he s used it to buy nice clothes Ryan was using peoples sympathy to fund his Spice addiction and even going as far as to accuse him of selling drugs, Ryan was operating a night-time Spice shop selling legal highs to the homeless .

Hall also accused homeless activist Wesley Dove, who had spoken out against Hall after he was forced out of the Stock Exchange on the 22^nd, of being another person who s been using the campaigns to profit and facilitate his own addiction to legal highs. Wesley Hall s accusations about other homeless activists using donated money for their own purposes are unfounded and could be an attempt to divert attention away from his own fundraising activities.

FUNDRAISING

Hall has raised over 2,000 since June through Gofundme, https://www.gofundme.com/iwantchange, where he asks the public to help him raise 5000, needed to insure our van for a year; get road tax; get me driving; get a few other volunteers insured; to pay for the MOT and to maintain the van for a whole year. The 5,000 is supposedly needed for Wesley s driving lessons, insurance and an MOT for his Mercedes-8 seater Van which had been kindly donated.

In contrast the registered charity Manchester Street Angels also have a Gofundme account, set up by Chantall Pickup (the sister of Adam Pickup who sadly passed away), where they are looking at getting a vehicle to help us carry out our duties. but over the last 12 months the page has only raised 169 of the 3,000 needed to buy a vehicle, perhaps leading to their statement We would like to invite anyone to research the groups, contact & question us & invest in the official street angel project for Manchester. ⁸

It appears Hall has a lot of experience in fundraising money for his projects. In September 2014 in an article by the Lancashire telegraph, http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/11459481.Laptop_theft____could_finish____East_Lancashire_s_Help_the_Homeless_project/?ref=mr⁹, Hall stated that Help the Homeless East Lancashire could be finished following the theft of his equipment.

The article claimed that his equipment was stolen after he fell asleep after a few drinks near Manchester Piccadilly station after attending a homeless conference, and a comedy night. Hall stated Having had my phone, laptop, Nikon DSLR, and Go-Pro camera, they even took my cigs. Help The Homeless East Lancashire is finished.

The crime was never reported to the police despite taking place in the heavily CCTV d city centre, and occurred after Hall himself admitted to having a few drinks and falling asleep on a bench.

Hall then set up two Fundrazr campaigns online https://fundrazr.com/campaigns/apsY6/ab/53Meya¹⁰ and https://fundrazr.com/campaigns/5rQ4a?utm_campaign=share-campaign&utm_medium=email&utm_source=09-2014¹¹. At the time a member of the public commented, The work of the group is clearly excellent and much needed. However, there is something about this that doesn t seem quite right. There are people hungry on the streets donations should be helping them, rather than buying top of the range gadgets for the project manager. One campaign listed the equipment Hall claimed was needed for Help the Homeless east Lancashire to continue to operate Macbook Pro Retina 2.8GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 512GB 1399 Go Pro Hero 3+ 400 (Not even mine, iPhone 5 16GB 549 Nikon D5100 Body 500 18-55mm Lens, 50mm Lens 450 iPOD 30GB 150 5TB External Hard Drive.

The other Fundrazr was set up to replace stolen equipment, and to purchase, a catering trailer, a storage unit and a Van. In October Hall received a cheque for 800 from Ish Ahmed of Curtis solicitors http://m.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/11570374.display/¹² and over the past year raised over 1,800 through the two Fundrazrs.

Hall defended the fundraising campaigns, People are trying to imply that these online fundraisers are dodgy That s not the case Otherwise they wouldn t be online for everyone to see Once we reach our target, our catering van & van will be on the road helping more towns & cities, offering outreach in Manchester & Lancashire on more nights However in his repeated pleas for private security firms to volunteer for him, Hall stated We have no money whatsoever and in his statement following his removal from the Stock Exchange Hall said Wesley Hall was unable to collect all of his belongings Thousands of pounds worth of equipment.

Other doubts have occurred about Halls honesty over money. On the 2^nd of October Wesley hall organized the protest rave which took place just before the Tory party conference.

The rave was closed down on the early hours of Sunday morning after the sound-system owner was forced to sign a dispersal order in order to have any chance of getting his equipment, worth over 10,000, back. Wesley referred to him as our sound technician, and made it clear that protest ended due to the signing of the dispersal order. Hall was more concerned about the loss of his catering equipment than the vastly more expensive sound system.

The sound-system owner Rick stated Wesley was supposed to pay me 200 for using the sound system, a very low fee considering the risky nature of the event. I never received any of the money or any help getting the equipment back. I tried to contact him several times but received no answer .

Supposing Wesley Hall has the money from the online fundraisers in an account as he claims, his activities are still highly questionable.

The Charities Act 2011 states a charity (any organization with the sole purpose of helping others) may register with the charity commission at any time, but MUST register if annual income is over 5,000. This may explain why Hall s online fundraisers are always set at a 5,000 limit and why he repeatedly sets up new charities in a new name before he reaches 5,000 in donations. Particularly when the 2011 Act also states that: A person is disqualified from being a charity trustee or trustee for a charity if a person has been convicted of any offence involving dishonesty or deception.

It s unknown whether Hall has any convictions involving dishonesty or deception, what is clear is that the Charity commission would not allow Hall to be a charity trustee if he had been found guilty of deceptive or dishonest crimes. Also under the, exceptions order to the rehabilitation of offenders act, persons must disclose spent criminal convictions when intending to work with people in vulnerable circumstances. Therefore Hall s claim that his past criminal convictions are irrelevant is untrue.

Hall is expecting people to not judge who he is now based on his violent, criminal, past.

To not exclude him from trying to do something positive for those in need now. If we are not to judge him on his past, we surely have to judge him on his current activities. Are activists and homeless wrong to question Hall?

When Hall has by his own admission: refused homeless people entry to his building; Has decided money donated by the public to help the homeless is best spent on driving lessons and thousands of pounds worth of equipment for himself; And has been accused of authoritarian and discriminatory behaviour, while himself accusing other homeless rights activists of theft, intimidation and even drug dealing.

Alex Farley

Additional research: Longtom Richardson

More: Features, Manchester, News, QuickKick^13141516

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References

1. ^{^} https://www.facebook.com/homesnotbanks (www.facebook.com)
2. ^{^} https://www.facebook.com/projectingreality/?fref=ts (www.facebook.com)
3. ^{^} https://www.facebook.com/streetangelsUK/?fref=ts (www.facebook.com)
4. ^{^} https://www.facebook.com/homesnotspikes/?fref=ts (www.facebook.com)
5. ^{^} https://www.facebook.com/Help-The-Homeless-Preston-1621245611465398/?fref=ts (www.facebook.com)
6. ^{^} https://www.facebook.com/iwantchange/?fref=ts (www.facebook.com)
7. ^{^} https://www.facebook.com/adam.whelan.188?fref=ts (www.facebook.com)
8. ^{^} https://www.gofundme.com/iwantchange (www.gofundme.com)
9. ^{^} http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/11459481.Laptop_theft____could_finish____East_Lancashire_s_Help_the_Homeless_project/?ref=mr (www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk)
10. ^{^} https://fundrazr.com/campaigns/apsY6/ab/53Meya (fundrazr.com)
11. ^{^} https://fundrazr.com/campaigns/5rQ4a?utm_campaign=share-campaign&utm_medium=email&utm_source=09-2014 (fundrazr.com)
12. ^{^} http://m.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/11570374.display/ (m.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk)
13. ^{^} Features (manchestermule.com)
14. ^{^} Manchester (manchestermule.com)
15. ^{^} News (manchestermule.com)
16. ^{^} QuickKick (manchestermule.com)

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