Charities querying the evictions were told that the publicly listed shopping centre companies had entered into a national agreement with another operator. Fairfax has learnt the new operator is two associated private NSW-based companies, King Cotton Australia Pty Ltd and Horizon Storm Pty Ltd, both of which are listed as being owned and directed by Sydney-based businessman Christoforos Dimou, 70, according to ASIC records. King Cotton has a sophisticated website that describes the company as a market leader in the trade of recycled clothing and rags exporting container loads monthly to the Middle East, Africa, Asia and the South Pacific. The company is also associated with a chain of second-hand clothing stores called "U-Turn", which include shops at Hall Street in Bondi, Crown Street, Surry Hills and one in Marrickville selling vintage and recycled clothing. King Cotton and Horizon Storm have justified their collection operations by donating to two charities, Make A Wish and Learning Links, both of which feature as brands on its clothing collection bins.

This week, Make A Wish, which aims to grant the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions, confirmed it has signed a three-year deal with King Cotton in late 2013. The charity says the deal involves a guaranteed donation of at least $270,000 over three years in exchange for using its Make A Wish brand on 244 bins spread across NSW, Victoria and Western Australia. Learning Links, which seeks to assist children with learning difficulties, declined to comment on what agreement it had with the King Cotton or Horizon Storm or what donation it receives. The charity’s financial statement for the 2012 to 2013 financial year says it received $51,048 for "recycled clothing" fund-raising and $46,363 the previous financial year.

Ms Caulfield said it was "particularly disturbing when respected charities are asked to move donation bins from fund-raising sites to make way for commercial arrangements". Endeavour Foundation chief executive David Barbagallo said the decision reduced his charity's ability to obtain donations from the public and increased the costs of fund-raising thereby reducing services the charity could provide to vulnerable people.

"We understand the need for Westfield and other shopping centre operators to make commercial decisions in the best interests of their shareholders but what they may not understand is these decisions have a direct negative impact on the most vulnerable people in our community,'' he said. On Thursday, after being contacted by Fairfax Media, Westfield appeared to partly back-flip, saying Endeavour could contact the company to rectify the situation. A Westfield spokeswoman confirmed there was “a national agreement” in place with Horizon Storm but the agreement did “not preclude other charity bins within our centres provided there was space available and they were willing to take up an agreement with the company''.

A Lend Lease Victoria spokeswoman said the decision was made "around the safety of staff and visitors to our retail centres". She said the new arrangement of "approximately 50 bins" through a licensed agreement in NSW and Victoria meant it was now a "streamlined and safe operation that alleviated issues associated with unregulated bins left on our sites". But Spine and Limb manager of the Paravin arm of the charity which handles the bins, Bryan Godfrey, said safety had never been mentioned when he was told the Paravin bins had to go. He said the bins in Greensborough had probably generated $30,000 to $40,000 a year in donations. "We sort them ourselves and we do have op-shops where we recycle and sort and that provides employment,'' he said.

Efforts to contact Mr Dimou at King Cotton on Friday were unsuccessful.

King Cotton business development manager Tony Rallis refused to say what commercial agreement King Cotton or Horizon Storm had with shopping centres for commercial-in-confidence reasons or whether the company was paying any fee to the shopping centres. Mr Rallis rejected any suggestion that the 244 Make A Wish bins would generate millions of dollars of which only a small percentage was going to go to Make A Wish. “I can assure you that is an untrue statement that they make millions and millions of dollars. I wish it was true but that is far from it. We are law-abiding people. We pay our taxes and we hire low-skilled workers. We employ 25 or 26 people. We pay payroll tax. We pay GST compliance,’’ he said. Mr Rallis said Make A Wish would probably end up getting "somewhere close to $300,000 which could escalate depending on the donation amounts''.

He said King Cotton’s operations were no different to that of charities because the charities also sold their donated clothing to commercial operators and hired private operators to transport the goods. “All charities operate with commercial people, every single one. We have bought (donated clothes) from charities,’’ he said. He said the company makes donations to other charitable causes. “St Vinnies (St Vincent De Paul) sell us product that is surplus to their requirements so what’s the difference between us and St Vinnies?,’’ he said. Mr Rallis said that some charities had been putting their bins into shopping centres without insurance liability cover, proper maintenance or without authority.

He confirmed King Cotton had a relationship with the U-Turn shops. When asking for the owner at U-Turn shops, Fairfax was given King Cotton's contact number.