The Charity Commission has opened a statutory inquiry into a Christian charity which the regulator was previously looking into as part of its double-defaulter class inquiry in 2013.
In a statement released today, the Charity Commission confirmed that it has opened a new statutory inquiry into Life Line Missions after an earlier double-defaulter inquiry found that the charity’s bank accounts had been closed and “substantial discrepancies with income and expenditure” were found.
Life Line Missions, a charity with objects of advancing the Christian religion and the relief of poverty, were originally investigated as part of the regulator's class inquiry into double-defaulting charities. Life Line Missions failed to file its accounts for the financial years ending 31 March 2011 and 2012.
The Commission contacted the charity’s trustees in November 2013, but having failed to “receive acceptable responses” the inquiry exercised its powers to obtain information directly from the organisation’s bankers.
The regulator found that the charity’s bank accounts had been closed in December 2013 and identified “substantial discrepancies” in its accounts, annual returns and bank statements.
Having been pulled out of the class inquiry, this new statutory inquiry was opened into Life Line Missions in November 2015.
According to the Register of Charities, Life Line Missions’ 31 March 2011 accounts are now 1,541 days overdue, while its 31 March 2012 accounts are 1,175 days overdue. It has also not filed its accounts for the year ending 31 March 2013, although it was not required to file accounts in 2014 at its income and spending fell below the £10,000 threshold.
A Charity Commission spokesman said that, while the charity no longer seems to be operational, the regulator is concerned as there has been “money going through the charity in the last couple of years” that hasn’t been accounted for. He also said the Commission is concerned about the charity’s governance due to only one trustee being listed on the register.
Civil Society News could find no contact details for Life Line Missions in order to get a comment.
