Bags of clothing were taken to a warehouse in Lithuania

A report by BBC South East Today has led to one firm in East Sussex being investigated by the Charity Commission.

Collections in the South East were filmed and goods traced to Europe where it was said they were sold for profit.

Some collection bags showed the Great Ormond Street Hospital logo. NHS chiefs said bogus collectors were taking money from the sickest children in the UK.

An undercover reporter gave a jacket containing a satellite tracker device to one company and traced the goods to a warehouse in Lithuania, where much of Britain's second-hand clothing is sold.

Anyone taking any form of money from the hospital is taking money away from the sick kids and the sickest kids in the UK Julia Stanger-France, Great Ormond Street

The manager of the warehouse claimed to have paid �3,000 for the lorry load of clothes.

Residents in the UK said they had been led to believe the goods were to help charities.

When the clothes were unloaded at the warehouse, some of the bags were from mainstream charities who have told the BBC they were not involved in the exports.

They included Great Ormond Street Hospital, Help the Aged and Cancer Research.

Julia Stanger-France, Great Ormond Street hospital spokeswoman, claimed that bags transported individually could not have got there legally.

"Our loads go out in huge container lorries, all our bags together."

She said: "We here at the hospital treat 2% of the sickest children in the UK.

"Effectively, anyone taking any form of money from the hospital is taking money away from the sick kids and the sickest kids in the UK.

Hospital shortfall

"It's appalling and I am disgusted that there are people out there who feel that this is something they can do."

Last week, the hospital revealed that it had to reschedule operations because of a �1.7m shortfall.

A spokesman for Scope said: "We rely on the donated stock from house-to-house collections to bring goods into our 300 shops.

"If we don't have that, then it can seriously affect our viability."

The Charity Commission has said any bogus collectors may be committing criminal offences and are certainly "ripping off" charities.