LAST summer, officials from the Gambling Commission, accompanied by police officers, visited Kevin Wright's home and the base for Bobby's Fund.

That marked the start of an ongoing investigation into the methods used by the organisation to raise significant amounts of cash.

The probe centred on whether the fund was operating with the correct licence.

Mr Wright yesterday confirmed that the Gambling Commission was still investigating the fund but, as yet, had "found nothing".

The fund had originally been operating under a local authority licence granted by Teignbridge District Council.

But it was raising so much money — more than £250,000 a year — that it had to apply for a Gambling Commission licence.

Mr Wright obtained the licence but objected to paying £5,200 to "bureaucrats" to renew it.

Two uniformed police officers and three Gambling Commission officials visited the large property after executing a search warrant.

They spent about three hours looking through documents, papers and computer files and took away several bundles of papers, including bank statements and invoices.

Mr Wright said yesterday that the fund was "his life's work" and that "no Gambling Commission or police" would stop him.

He told the Echo: "We had a meeting with the Gambling Commission recently.

"Their legislation has got holes in it.

"They have got the records with them and what cannot be disputed is that significant sums of money have been spent on other children.

"There's no hidden money in Swiss bank accounts or anything like that."

The Gambling Commission said it would not comment on individual cases.