UK charity trustee claimed accounts were destroyed in Grenfell fire – when base was 200km away

A UK charity trustee accused of making thousands of fake gift aid claims told a watchdog that accounts were destroyed in London's Grenfell Tower fire disaster – despite being based 200 kilometres from the capital. Adnan Ali Khan is accused of applying for more than £95,000 ($133,170) in gift aid payments for Birmingham-based Muslim charity The Voice of Truth, which was founded in 2002 and folded a few years ago. But a Charity Commission inquiry revealed that there was "no evidence" it generated enough donations to be eligible for that amount. Mr Khan allegedly abused his position as information officer at another charity, the Idaara Maarif-e-Islam (IMEI) mosque, to use its donors’ details to apply for The Voice of Truth gift aid. He was banned from being a trustee for 10 years for misconduct and supplying false information, a decision he is appealing. “Gift aid claims made by TVOT between 2010 and 2016 resulted in gift aid payments in excess of £95,000, which would have required the charity to have received donations in excess of £350,000,” the commission said. “However, the inquiry was unable to locate any information that supported this level of donations to TVOT." For the year ending March 2016, the charity's accounts recorded income of £165,948 and expenditure of £163,235. The commission was contacted by IMEI, which is also based in Birmingham, over concerns about financial irregularities at TVOT after it received queries about donations. “The commission obtained information which suggested that gift aid claims made by TVOT included details of amounts given by some donors to IMEI and not to TVOT,” the commission said. “Further enquiries were made and it became clear that the signatories to the bank account for TVOT were not the current serving trustees and substantial sums had been paid from TVOT’s bank account to an individual, referred to in this report as Trustee A. “Commission records indicated that Trustee A and some of his family were involved in the administration and management of both charities.” When the watchdog asked to see the charity's accounts, Mr Khan claimed they had been destroyed in the Grenfell Tower tragedy in June 2017, in which 72 people died, despite the charity being based in Birmingham. The inquiry found that the charity had insufficient receipts and invoices, and found “no evidence to support the explanation that all TVOT’s records had been destroyed in the Grenfell Tower fire, and insufficient justification as to why these documents were not held at, or near, Tvot’s address in Birmingham”. “The inquiry also found that the named contact for TVOT and the person said to have submitted the annual returns to the commission during 2011 and 2012, had no knowledge of the charity and was not, and never had been, involved in the administration of TVOT,” the watchdog said. The charity's accounts from 2016 were found to contain an “altered copy of the independent examiner’s report from IMEI’s 2015 accounts”. Between 2015 and 2018, Mr Khan was paid £80,900 from TVOT’s bank account, the inquiry found. “It was paid to Trustee A in a number of different ways including payments to a company (now dissolved) of which Trustee A was the sole director and different bank accounts which correlate to the aliases of Trustee A,” the commission said. “These funds were appropriated from the bank account of TVOT without proper authorisation, and Trustee A has been unable to provide adequate supporting information to justify their expenditure.” Despite his suspension by IMEI, he was reinstated a few months later after a petition was signed by the majority of its trustees and a meeting was held by the charity to discuss his conduct. One of his siblings led the meeting. Mr Khan resigned from IMEI in November 2018. The watchdog requested that two IMEI trustees, who they did not name, resign and be banned from serving for five and seven years, respectively.

UK charity trustee claimed accounts were destroyed in Grenfell fire – when base was 200km away

Almost £100,000 was paid in gift aid after trustee allegedly used details of Birmingham mosque donors