In a report published today, the Charity Commission is highly critical of the charity Revelation Foundation, after uncovering flaws in its structure and serious governance failings that amount to mismanagement by its trustees.

Revelation Foundation is involved in creating and broadcasting Christian content programmes for television.

The Commission opened an inquiry into the charity in 2014 following concerns raised by the public that the charity was being used for private advantage. The charity had recently moved most of its operations to Spain, and in doing so, had developed an overly complex operating structure.

The Commission found no evidence to support the allegation of private advantage, but its investigation instead exposed a series of governance failings on the part of the charity.

These failings included decision-making processes that were inadequate such as not obtaining professional advice before key decisions, badly managed conflicts of interest and poor financial oversight.

The regulator also found the charity’s founder Howard Conder, who had links to companies involved in the delivery of the charity’s activities and was a significant donor, held a disproportionate influence over the trustees.

As a consequence of the governance failures, the charity developed an unwieldy structure which placed a significant proportion of the charity’s assets beyond its direct control and therefore at risk.

Amy Spiller, Head of Investigations at the Charity Commission, said:

The public expects each charity to show that they are doing their bit to uphold public trust in charity more generally. This starts with trustees being able to clearly show how they are acting in their charity’s best interests and for its beneficiaries.

Our inquiry found the trustees of Revelation Foundation could not show why decisions were taken or how they had acted in their charity’s best interests and that of its beneficiaries. Instead they demonstrated weak governance and oversight and ultimately left themselves open to allegations they were making decisions in their own interests. Whilst our inquiry didn’t find evidence of this, our work does demonstrate the importance of good governance and transparency to prevent a charity being exposed to undue risk. We hope other charities will look to this as an example of why effective governance is so important.

The Commission appointed an interim manager to the charity in June 2015. The report acknowledges there was a significant delay during which the inquiry sought updates from the interim manager and the trustees’ concern that he had been in very limited contact with them. The interim manager was discharged in September 2018 on conclusion of his work.

The charity has, as a result of this inquiry, made many significant improvements to its governance arrangements, which includes Howard Condor stepping back from the charity and the trustees gaining a clearer understanding of their role and responsibilities.

The Commission will continue to monitor the charity.

Ends.

Notes to Editors:

• When the charity moved to Spain many Christian broadcasters were operating from the country at the time and so this was not an unusual decision.

• The Charity Commission is the independent, non-ministerial government department that registers and regulates charities in England and Wales. Its purpose is to ensure charity can thrive and inspire trust so that people can improve lives and strengthen society.

Leslie Walker Crossland and Richard Walker Crossland are both from Barnsley and from 9 October, father and son are banned from acting as directors or directly or indirectly becoming involved, without the permission of the court, in the promotion, formation or management of a company.

Richard Crossland (41) is banned for 11 years, while Leslie Crossland (71) has received the maximum disqualification term of 15 years.

Their bans are connected to the company R&L Electrical Engineers Limited, an electrical installations firm operating in the Barnsley area. The company was incorporated in September 2016 but entered into creditors voluntary liquidation just three years later in May 2019, which brought R&L Electrical Engineers to the attention of the Insolvency Service.

Investigators established that Richard Crossland was appointed a director of R&L Electrical Engineers in January 2018 after his previous 9-year ban from 2008 had expired. The previous ban was handed down to Richard Crossland after he allowed his father to illegally run two companies, in breach of Leslie Crossland’s previous bans.

Enquiries uncovered that Richard Crossland repeated the same misconduct when for a second time he allowed his father to illegally run R&L Electrical Engineers until the company was liquidated in May 2019 – again breaching Leslie Crossland’s active bans.

Further enquiries established that father and son carried out additional instances of misconduct while running the electrical installations firm.

Richard Crossland failed to ensure R&L Electrical Engineers maintained adequate accounting records, which meant that the Liquidator could not verify the legitimacy of £350,000 worth of payments from the company’s accounts. Contentious payments, made between January 2018 and February 2019, totalling more than £137,000 was paid to R&L Electrical Engineers’ de facto director – Leslie Crossland.

And while acting as a shadow director, Leslie Crossland carried out factoring fraud. The banned director impersonated the factoring company to ensure creditors diverted funds to R&L Electrical Engineers. Leslie Crossland also fabricated a backdated letter to the factoring company, attempting to release the previous de jure director from her personal guarantee responsibilities.

Investigators also established that Leslie Crossland had served a 3-year prison sentence after he breached his 14-year disqualification he received in November 2008.

On 18 September 2020, the Secretary of State accepted disqualification undertakings from both Richard and Leslie Crossland.

Keith Owen, Director of Investigation and Enforcement for the Insolvency Service, said:

Father and son are prolific offenders. Over a number of years Richard allowed his father to run companies in full knowledge that he was banned from doing so, while Leslie not only breached his various disqualifications but also deceived factoring companies and customers to ensure debts could not be paid.

Richard and Leslie’s substantial disqualifications should serve as a stark warning to other rogue directors that we will investigate instances of misconduct and apply to have you removed from the corporate arena in order to protect customers and creditors from suffering harm.

Leslie Walker Crossland is from Barnsley and his date of birth is October 1949.

Richard Walker Crossland is from Barnsley and his date of birth is December 1979.

Leslie Crossland background

• Accepted a 10-year disqualification undertaking in September 2005 in connection with failing to maintain records while director of Yorkshire Electronic Services (Barnsley) Limited:
• Accepted a 14-year disqualification undertaking in October 2008 in connection with failing to maintain records for CCN Shopfitting Limited and Total Solutions (Build) Limited, and for acting as a director whilst disqualified
• Between September 2017 and May 2019, acted as a director of R&L Electrical Engineers in breach of previous disqualifications

Richard Crossland background

• Accepted a 9-year disqualification undertaking in October 2008 which commenced from November 2008 after allowing a banned director to run a company in connection with CCN Shopfitting Limited and Total Solutions (Build) Limited
• From January 2018 to May 2019, knowingly allowed a banned director to act as a company director of R&L Electrical Engineers

About disqualifications

Disqualification undertakings are the administrative equivalent of a disqualification order but do not involve court proceedings. Persons subject to a disqualification order are bound by a range of restrictions.

Further information about the work of the Insolvency Service, and how to complain about financial misconduct.

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