A DISABLED charity has closed after the chairman quit following a police caution relating to two charges of indecent assault.

Richard Day, 59 quit the Accrington ShopMobility scheme after people were told he had been put on the sex offender's register.

Mr Day, of Huncoat, who initiated the scheme in June 1999, was arrested and cautioned last month.

But he said he only accepted the caution to avoid putting his wife and colleagues through a court case. He said he did not realise it would mean going on the sex offenders' register.

Although police initially indicated he would have been put on the register for such an offence, a spokesman today confirmed that the caution would not have prompted an entry on the register.

Richard first resigned from the registered charity the day after he was charged but the 10-strong committee refused to accept it.

The committee, members of the scheme and Richard's wife Pat have continued to give him their full support.

Pat, who is also a trustee of the charity, said: "Richard has resigned because of pressure and ill health which means he has to leave and ShopMobility cannot continue without him.

"We had an emergency committee meeting on Thursday and it has been decided that we are closing for the foreseeable future.

"Richard's not well, he has lost a lot of weight and needs a rest and none of the committee want to take it over.

"We are also taking legal advice to see if he can retract the statement and take it to court. I know he is innocent.

"What annoys me with all this is that we have not kept it from any of the members that come into the shop, right from the start we told everyone what is going on. But we have had eggs, tomatoes and other things thrown at the house and car and the windscreen has been smashed on my mobility vehicle." The store, which provides disabled people with scooters and wheelchairs for a small donation so they can shop in the town centre, was first established in June 1999.

Richard and Pat were members of the Burnley branch and used its mobile unit one day a month in Broadway. He and a colleague, who has since left the area, then applied for money from Hyndburn Council's social regeneration budget and established the store in Whalley Road.

Before its closure it had 360 members who depended on the service to get around the town centre. The members had spent £1.3million in the town's businesses.

Richard said: "I don't know how people will react to my resignation, I know what some people might think but everybody who has come in says they back me. I am very disappointed that other people are having to lose out with this now. But hopefully it might make the council sit up and start their own scheme."

Coun Peter Britcliffe, leader of Hyndburn Council said: "The council hopes to see such a service continued in the future, and we will be monitoring the situation to ensure that Accrington continues to offer facilities for the elderly and disabled within its town centre."