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A fund-raising programme offering sets of McDonald's Snoopys for $700 insisted yesterday it was genuine.

 Kevin Wong, district officer of the Hong Kong World Child Welfare Organisation said: 'We may not be well known but we are genuinely raising money for charity.

 'Police visited my office yesterday to go through all the documents. If we were really cheating people, I wouldn't be sitting here now.

  'We're a group of social workers, reporters and other things,' he said. 'Some of us have visited places like Sri Lanka and found the children there need help more than the locals.'  About $140,000 is expected to be raised by the sale of 200 sets of Snoopy toys, which would go towards training deaf and dumb children in Sri Lanka, Mr Wong said. He refused to say how the money would be channelled.

 About 50 subscriptions had been received. Buyers would be told in about two weeks to collect the Snoopys from the group's Causeway Bay office or a Hunghom shop. The toys were donated by factories and collectors, Mr Wong said.

 A newspaper advertisement about the programme prompted the Save the Children Fund to issue a statement on Wednesday saying it had no connection with the group despite the similarity in their Chinese names.

 McDonald's said it had no part in the event and that it had the exclusive rights to sell the dolls.

 The Social Welfare Department has warned the public not to donate money to groups of Mr Wong's type, which were not officially registered.

 Police said they had found no evidence of crime during their visit, but did not say whether the investigation had been called off.

 Save the Children Fund executive director Irene Lo Wong Siu-fan said: 'I've never heard of the group. The way they are raising money with the Snoopy dolls sounds problematic.

 'We really don't want more scams, especially when fund raising is so difficult in the economic situation now.'  The Snoopy appeal is the latest in a series of fund-raising drives to draw suspicion from the Social Welfare Department. Two other groups appealing for money through direct mail are being investigated.



Snoopy group insists fund-raising above board