Trust

The first part of the UK Scout Law states that ‘A Scout is to be Trusted’. This law applies to both young people and Leaders alike, no exception. SM Jerry has posed something similar recently when he talks about honesty and setting a good example.

So it is quite sad to read in our local newspaper that an ex Scout Leader from a local Troop has been convicted of benefit fraud and sentenced to pay back over £3000 and do 60 days community service.

The account in the paper has all the usual scouting clichés that are used when reporting something to do with Scouts.

Now I do not know him, nor to my knowledge have I ever met him, but there do seem to be a couple of points of interest here. First of all he was claiming incapacity benefit for a damaged back and was unable to walk without a stick, but was ‘caught’ doing Scouting activities like hiking. Secondly on the comments section of the online reports I’ve read, a couple of his ex Scouts have written to say what a good Leader he was and how much he taught them.

So it seems that, possibly, he mad some silly decisions regarding his claims, but was a good Leader. However he and to some degree his Group are now tarred with a bad name. Which is a shame as someone with a previously good name and has done good work in the community is now a criminal 🙁

2 Replies to “Trust”

  1. The papers just want to give anything a bad name. I think its unfair how they focused this around scouting.

    In my local area, somebody died in a climbing accident. The headlines were “SCOUT DIES IN …” (can’t remember it exactly) but he wasn’t climbing with scouts – i think it was him and a friend or something. But it seems like they were just trying to shock people and give scouting a bad name then too, implying it isn’t safe.

  2. Sadly very true, the media love to grab hold of a label, whether it be Stoke City fan or Scout. It’s just a bit of lazy journalism really, and my local newspaper is really good at that!

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