Press release: Misconduct after failure to comply with Commission

Regulator publishes report of its inquiry into Urban Relief.

The Charity Commission has today concluded its inquiry into Urban Relief (former registered charity number 1114537). The Commission opened an inquiry on 3 February 2015 after a trustee of the charity had been convicted of a number of offences, including managing a brothel, concealing criminal property and using the charity’s bank account to launder funds from the proceeds of crime.

The Commission undertook scrutiny of the charity’s bank accounts and conducted further enquiries, including attempting to meet all the trustees. Although the inquiry’s analysis of the bank account records indicates that the charity did receive and spend funds, the inquiry saw no evidence that those funds were obtained or applied in furtherance of its objects.

Both the convicted trustee and his wife (also a trustee) failed to cooperate with the inquiry despite being ordered to do so by the Commission. The Commission found that 2 of the 4 charity trustees were unaware that their names had been declared to the Commission (see endnote 1).

The inquiry concluded that the trustees were responsible for mismanagement and misconduct in the administration of the charity due to a persistent failure to comply with the Commission’s orders and directions. The Commission removed the charity from the register on 21 November 2016 (see endnote 2).

Carl Mehta, Head of Investigations, Enforcement at the Charity Commission, said:

The trustees in this case failed to abide by even the basic duties of trustees and failed to cooperate with our investigation. This charity has now been removed from the register of charities and the trustee involved was held to account by the criminal justice system.

The full report is available on GOV.UK.

Ends

PR 07/17

Notes to editors

  1. The Charity Commission is the independent regulator of charities in England and Wales. To find out more about our work, see our annual report.
  2. Search for charities on our online register.
  3. Details of how the Commission reports on its regulatory work can be found on GOV.UK.

Endnotes

  1. The Commission established in the inquiry that out of the 4 trustees 2 had never consented to be trustees, or acted in that capacity.
  2. The charity ceased to operate as of August 2014, the last discernable date that any funds were transacted through the charity’s bank account.