Charity sweets claim leaves a sour taste

Civic centre in clear

The boss of a charity sweets provider has clarified why a notice went up at Oldham Civic Centre claiming there had been losses of more than £1,000 on Macmillan Cancer Care toffees.

It was thought people at the civic centre had literally been caught with their hands in the sweets by helping themselves to the £1 bags of toffees.

But Geoff Dixon, of the Sweets4 company which supplies the toffees, said the figure was highly inaccurate.

The notice went up in the Rochdale Road reception area where bags of sweets were offered with 15p in every £1 going to Macmillan Cancer Care.

Mr Dixon added: “Because the boxes are left unattended in public areas for large periods of time, we do expect some losses to happen and we budget for this.

“I would like to assure the people of Oldham that my company did not have losses of £1,339 across three months from this one place.

“This figure covers a large number of boxes, over a long period of time, in many different places.

“The notice mentioning losses was put there without our knowledge and we will be addressing it.

“We are pleased to support this very worthwhile charity.

“This has generated more than £15,000 for the charity from the generous population of Oldham (including Oldham Council) in the last year.”