A Camberwell preacher who sold fake Covid ‘protection kits’ has vowed to keep his church open after a government body ordered him to wind down his charity, the News can exclusively reveal.
Nearly four years after Southwark News first revealed Bishop Climate Wiseman was flogging the mixtures of oil and red string, the Charity Commission says it has ordered him to dissolve Kingdom Church GB over financial irregularities.
But the Bishop has said Kingdom Church GB was separate from the Kingdom Church, meaning his church on Camberwell Station Road will stay open.
The Charity Commission’s verdict comes after the bishop was convicted of fraud and handed a one-year suspended jail term in December 2022.
Camberwell Bishop who flogged covid ‘protection kits’ handed one-year suspended jail sentence
Comparing his struggle to the Messiah’s, Wiseman, 47, told the News: “Jesus died as a criminal, as a convicted criminal… So I take my encouragement from that and knowing that.”
And he added: “I’m a miracle man but what chance do I stand?”, saying secularists were determined to find fault with him.
In its verdict published yesterday (January 25), the Charity Commission announced Climate’s charity had been removed from the register on February 21, 2023.
Its inquiry findings alleged the church’s finances were entangled with Wiseman’s “private business interests” and “demonstrated poor financial controls”.
In a statement, the Commission claimed Wiseman had fallen “woefully short” of expectations and alleged he had “scammed vulnerable people”.
It has also banned Wiseman from being a charity trustee or holding a senior position in a charity for fifteen years.
But the bishop now says the inquest was pursued because of his Covid kits rather than his finances.
“It’s been very unfair. The way they deal with churches is very discriminating because this inquiry had nothing to do with the finances,” he told us.
“Because what really happened is, the Charity Commission, the first time they rang me it was about this issue of Covid… It’s about the oil.”
Camberwell Bishop’s fake Covid protection kits: How the preacher was convicted of fraud
Wiseman repeated his claim today (January 25) that the oil “worked”: “We had over a thousand members and none of them died of covid.”
In a statement, Helen Earner, Director of Regulatory Services at the Charity Commission, said: “The public rightly expects charities to be places of safety.
“Trustee Bishop Climate Wiseman fell woefully short of that expectation when he scammed vulnerable people at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.”
Wiseman’s pandemic packages contained a small bottle of hyssop, cedarwood and olive oil along with a prayer card and a piece of scarlet yarn.
He warned his followers that they could “drop dead” if they didn’t buy the products.
During the media storm that followed the story, Wiseman told his congregation that news outlets were the “antichrist” launching a “smear campaign”.
In a YouTube video conference entitled ‘Update From Prophet Climate About The Evil Accusation Going Around On Media’ he warned followers to ignore media reports.
“It’s a smear campaign that’s been run by not any other than the secular, I’m talking about the secular movement … people that hate God,” he said.
After this paper broke the story on March 31, 2020, the BBC launched an investigation. Their secret phone recordings and testimony were used as evidence in court to secure Wiseman’s conviction.
During the trial, Wiseman testified that his kits had cured at least ten people who had the virus.
His defence argued he should be free to practise his religion and told the judge that Dr Wiseman was not an ‘anti-vaxxer’.
TfL allows controversial bishop who sold coronavirus ‘cures’ to advertise on London buses
At the trial, demonstrators wearing matching red t-shirts held banners and placards declaring: “Southwark Labour councillors are anti-christ and faith haters”, ‘Bishop Climate is the true prophet”, and “there is healing power in divine cleansing oil”.
Bishop Climate defended himself in court on the grounds of religious freedom and insisted he was not an “anti-vaxxer”.
Following his conviction, Southwark Council said Wiseman “preyed on people from the start of the first lockdown, a time when most of us were scared and worried about coronavirus and what the future held”.
“We are delighted with this guilty result, it shows that no one is above the law,” it added.
The National Secular Society was among the organisations that flagged concerns over the church, ultimately leading to the charity’s closure.
Responding to the Charity Commission’s decision, NSS head of campaigns Megan Manson said: “The Kingdom Church case should be a wake up call.
“If ‘the advancement of religion’ is enabling organisations peddling fake cures to register as charities, its inclusion on the list of charitable purposes must be challenged.”
Responding to his interview with this paper, Manson said: “We want to see a society that treats people of all religions and beliefs equally and treats them fairly by the law but also makes sure they’re not above the law.”
The Charity Commission declined to comment on Wiseman’s latest remarks.