Police and licensing officers are investigating a group selling fund-raising scratchcards across Sussex.

An Argus investigation has revealed some of the charities the lottery claims benefit from the draw had never heard of it and others said they had not had a payout for years.

Shoreham police were called in after a woman who works for one of the named charities was asked to buy tickets.

The nurse, who works at the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Sick Children in Brighton, told the hospital's fund-raising department and discovered it had repeatedly written to David Groom, promoter of the South Coast Sports and Charities Society, asking to have its name removed from its flyers.

Last night Mr Groom said the money from the lottery had helped dozens of good causes and he was happy to talk to the police if necessary. The scratchcard draw, sold door-to-door from Bognor to Newhaven, highlights 26 local causes.

A leaflet names typical examples of the organisations supported by the society during the past months and years as the Worthing Hospital Babies Unit, The Rockinghorse Appeal, St Barnabas' Hospice, Portslade Horse and Pony Rescue Centre, the Sarah Lacey Appeal, the Darren Leukaemia Fund, St Wilfred's Hospice, the Oakhaven Hospice Trust, Stray Cats Youth Drop-In Centre, 1st Durrington Scout Group, The Julia Perks Foundation, Walberton and Binsted Junior School, 15th Brighton Beaver Colony, Avisford Youth, Felpham Colts Youth and Athletic Club, Arundel Colts, Arun District Girls Football Representative Side, Worthing Warm Campaign, Rustington Park Youth FC, Rustington Otters Youth FC, Bognor Youth Development Centre, Arun District Schools Football in the Community Scheme, Barnham Trojans Youth FC, Worthing Gateway Club, Bognor Martlets Youth FC, Arundel Devils Girls FC.

Some groups have never heard of the society, while others recall the Woodside Promotions Group, a forerunner of the society also managed by Mr Groom, offering them donations in the mid-Nineties.

Some have since demanded to be removed from the Angmering-based society's flyers without success. In its flyer, the lottery says: "We have supported this worthy cause (the Rockinghorse Appeal) since we started over three years ago and we fully expect to do so in the future."

Ian Keeber, spokesman for the Royal Alexandra, said: "They gave us a very small amount of money in the dim and distant past. This firm is not one of our official fund-raisers and we have asked them to take our name off their literature."

Cynthia Duduas, fund-raiser for the Stray Cats drop-in centre in Ham Road, Worthing, said: "Woodside gave us £100 when we first opened and we haven't heard from them since. If they're saying they're still giving us money then I'd like to see some of it."

Annie Taylor, of the Portslade Horse and Pony Rescue Centre, said: "I've never heard of the SCSCS and I certainly haven't seen a penny from them."

Marion Cooper, head fund-raiser at St Barnabas' Hospice in Worthing, contacted the company asking it to remove their name from the flyers. She said: "Between December 1996 and January 1998 Woodside Promotions gave us £700. They set up a new lottery using our name but they weren't giving us any money.

"I managed to track them down and they told me they would take our name off. I haven't heard anything since."

A spokeswoman for Oakhaven Hospice, funded by the Oakhaven Hospice Trust in Hampshire, said: "We would never promote ourselves outside our area. I certainly don't recognise the name of this firm."

Police have handed their files to licensing watchdogs at Arun District Council.

PC Helen Rawlings, of Shoreham police, said: "The matter came to our attention when a seller knocked at the door of a woman who worked for one of the charities. She found out what was happening and contacted us.

"The woman continued to buy the tickets so we were able to question the man selling them when he arrived at her door.

"He sincerely believed the firm was genuine and was only being paid 12p for each one he sold."

Arun District Council's principal environment officer John Green said: "We have received information from the police and will be investigating the allegations to see if there have been any breaches of the society's lottery registration. When our investigations are complete we shall consider what action, if any, is appropriate."

The scratchcard salesman put police in touch with Mr Groom's partner, Phil Limpus from Angmering, who is in hospital.

Mr Groom explained that SCSCS was formed in 1997 from the Woodside Promotions Group which he set up with Mr Limpus.

He said Woodside made a series of payments to charities and it was to these which the latest literature refers. He said the SCSCS was now making payments to women's football teams in Chichester, Worthing, Bognor, which he coaches.

He said: "It's not exclusively money for football but I haven't been able to check my papers so I can't tell you who else we've given money to in the past 12 months.

"We make proper declarations to the lottery authority. The fact we have been around for so long proves we must have fulfilled a lot of the promises.

"I don't want to say anything more until I have investigated this properly."