Charity whistleblower wins unfair dismissal case

Finance | Hannah Bewley | 20 Jan 2011

The Charity Commission is to investigate prison counselling charity Forensic Therapies after an employment tribunal ruled it had unfairly dismissed an employee after she raised allegations of misappropriated funds.

The Guardian reports that in 2008 Ms Husain-Naviatti highlighted a budgetary inaccuracy after a £535,000 Cabinet Office grant was recorded as only £240,000, but when met with inaction from the trustees and the director she pursued an official grievance procedure.

The former deputy director had also raised that her salary had been paid twice, once by the Cabinet Office and again by another charity. Ms Husain-Naviatti believed one £35,000 sum was “siphoned off or otherwise misapplied”.

Six months after Ms Husain-Naviatti's grievance was heard she was suspended and then made redundant. The judge at the Watford employment tribunal ruled she had been unfairly dismissed and would receive £47,580 in damages.

Following a call by the tribunal for further investigation a spokesperson for the Charity Commission said: "Concerns have previously been raised with the Commission about Forensic Therapies Ltd (registered charity no. 1114599) and we are now looking again at this matter."

After the tribunal the Oxford graduate and psychotherapist said: "All I'd ever wanted was the truth. I had sincerely held suspicions of financial impropriety and I wanted it to be investigated properly. The way I was treated because of that was a shock to me. I was victimised, harassed and ultimately lost my livelihood for daring to raise serious concerns."

The charity which offered counselling to inmates in HMP Brixton, Pentonville, Holloway and Wandsworth is now in liquidation but denies any wrongdoing.

Directory: Charity Commission

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