A mental health charity which was accused of threatening behaviour and pressurising vulnerable people into paying “voluntary fees” in return for its help has closed.
An operational compliance case into Cornwall-based charity Bufferzone published today by the Charity Commission found that the trustees’ supervision and management of the charity was “wholly inadequate” and that there appeared to be no financial controls in place.
The outreach service charity was removed from the register on 5 March.
The Charity Commission got involved in the case in an attempt to understand the charity’s processes for safeguarding vulnerable beneficiaries. It concluded that the trustees were failing to safeguard by not ensuring that robust governance controls and procedures were in place.
While undertaking its investigation, the Charity Commission discovered that there were no written safeguarding policies or procedures in place and volunteers were left unsupervised for much of the time.
It also discovered that one of the trustees was related to a volunteer. The Commission concluded that the trustee’s position was “inherently conflicted and untenable”.
Charity trustees were not able to provide the Commission with bank statements or cheque book counterfoils.
The Charity Commission gave the trustees the option to recognise their responsibility for the charity’s governance or dissolve the charity in line with the provisions of its constitution, a suggestion which was also made by the trustees.
Trustees decided to dissolve the charity, however they failed to supply the final accounts needed for the process. This was despite repeated attempts by one trustee who cooperated with the Commission.
The Commission said that it became clear that the charity was unable to account for its historic income and expenditure.
It concluded that the charity’s remaining assets were minimal and further action against the trustees would not be proportionate.
Therefore it used its powers to remove the charity from the Register of Charities under the basis that it no longer operated.
