Keith Lemon slams t-shirt brands for selling fake Caroline Flack tribute designs without donating to Samaritans

Keith Lemon has slammed online t-shirt companies for selling knock-off versions of the charity top he designed in memory of Caroline Flack.

Lemon, real name Leigh Francis, shared on Instagram last week that he was selling t-shirts with the words “be kind” and a portrait of Flack, who died at the age of 40 earlier this month after taking her own life.

Selling them through KIL Clothes, his official clothing line, Lemon said 100% of the profits would be going to mental health charity Samaritans.

However, since sharing his design, Lemon claimed that he had seen a number of websites imitating the design and offering the t-shirts for sale, directing profits away from Samaritans.

“Unfortunately a company called @teespring has stolen the design and has started selling them,” Lemon wrote on Instagram.

“That’s profits that would’ve gone to Samaritans. Hopefully they’ll do the right thing and hand over what profits they make to the Samaritans. Can’t trust anyone!”

Teespring, a user-generated custom apparel platform, responded and said they had disabled the account of the seller behind the plagiarised design and assured the star that they “do not support this behaviour and will work with you to make this right.”

However, Lemon later discovered more sites selling copies of the t-shirt and said he felt “so disappointed” by the discovery.

“Not very nice. I give up!” he added. “Probably gonna be more out there.”

Lemon revealed the design in a heartfelt Instagram post last week, saying he was “absolutely shocked” by Flack’s death.

“All the recent events just seemed so unreal. I’d been friends with Caroline for many years,” he wrote.

“Since before telly happened. In more recent times I’d not seen Caroline as much as I had years ago, but it was always like old times when I saw her.”

Lemon and Flack worked together on his sketch show Bo’ Selecta!, and she appeared on Celebrity Juice a number of times.

Following Flack’s death, Lemon paid tribute to Flack by sharing a number of photos from their friendship over the years

This morning is so odd. Looking back at fun times with teary eyes,” he wrote.

“It’s always nice to see a familiar face especially one so pretty or hear a familiar laugh, especially one so infectious. 

“We had many fun times back in the day. Sweet Caroline. Will miss you x”.

If you are affected by any of the issues raised in this article, please contact the Samaritans on 116123 (free) or email jo@samaritans.org.