Is £1 Bowler Levy a SCAM?

Bowling News

Below is a copy of a letter received yesterday by a Huddersfield area bowling club purporting to be from the Yorkshire CCGBA asking them to pay an unknown sum into a Yorkshire CCGBA business account. The NatWest says there is no such account and that this might be a SCAM and that it '.....could signal criminal activity.'

The letter claims that all districts in Yorkshire have completed payment except for Huddersfield and they have now asked this club to calculate how much the payment should be and then make a BACS payment for the total amount.

However any club trying to set up a BACS payment will have problems with the information provided in this letter. My bank is the NATWEST and it asks for the name of the business account before accepting any new instructions and it certainly didn't recognise Yorkshire CCGBA or YCCGBA or YorkshireCGBA or any combination of Ys, Cs or Gs or anything similar related to this Account Number. Could this be a scam? NatWest think this might be and is refusing to approve the details provided by the Yorkshire CCGBA (see below).

After waiting all this time for invoices promised by the end of April 2025, the reality is that it is a plea, not an invoice that is received. This plea says that they haven't a clue what the full levy amount should be so is relying on clubs to calculate it, pay out and keep quiet.

The example below is a letter sent to a Huddersfield area club yesterday by email. So after waiting 6 months past the well-publicised payment deadline, all you get is a plea for help. There is no guidance about matters such as what to do about club bowlers who also play for other clubs. Are these bowlers expected to pay a £1 levy to every club that they play for? Who knows? What a way to run a business. This is a joke!! Don't forget that you have to pay the Levy in 2025, 2026 and 2027. This comedy could run for some while yet.

Have any other clubs received similar letters? Have any other clubs been successful in getting their bank to accept instructions to enable payment by BACS? Please let me know if you have received a similar letter. Have you calculated what you owe them? Have you tried to pay the sum by BACS or other means? Tell me your view, is this a scam?

The Yorkshire CCGBA are getting 5% of the amount paid by each club but seem to be doing very little to earn that sum. Who is policing this work? Where is the audit trail of sums collected? What is the name of the bank account being used to collect these sums? Why is it a secret? Is it a SCAM?

Here is the letter

This is what NatWest thought of the payment instructions.