The Charity Commission is taking enforcement action against three of the 12 charities that were named in phase one of its class inquiry into charities that had failed to meet their filing requirements.

Nine of the original charities named have now met their filing obligations and been removed from the inquiry. The regulator has published inquiry reports for five of these today.

But three others remain in the inquiry and the Commission is now taking enforcement action against them to obtain their missing documents. However, the regulator would not give any detail of the action being taken as the statutory inquiry is still ongoing.

The three charities are Yad Vochessed Association Ltd, Achiezer Association Ltd, and Beighton Welfare Recreation Ground.

In the case of each charity whose inquiry report has now been published, the trustees were found to be in breach of their legal duties, and guilty of mismanagement and misconduct.

These charities were: Grace Church Christian Centre Ltd; The Bridge (Oxford); Lower Central Gardens Bournemouth; Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum, and The Five Parks, Bournemouth IE Kings, Queens, Meyrick and Redhill parks and Seafield Gardens.

All have been issued with advice and guidance spelling out their legal duties to submit timely information to the regulator.

The latter three all had Bournemouth Borough Council as their corporate trustee. The Council reassured the Charity Commission that follow a reorganisation of accountancy services in late 2012, it now had systems in place to ensure compliance.

In the case of the other two charities – Grace Church Christian Centre and The Bridge - the Commission directed the trustees to prepare and submit the missing information and obtained their bank records and financial information.

The regulator said today that it was encouraged to see that three of the five charities reported on have already submitted their accounts for 2013 ahead of time.

The original class inquiry captured those charities that had a last reported income of £500,000 or more and had not filed their annual returns or accounts in at least two of the last five years.

Phase two of class inquiry

Today the regulator widened the scope of the class inquiry to include 12 more charities that have also not filed for at least two of the last five years but have a slightly lower income threshold, at £250,000 to £500,000. Click here to read more on this.

One of the new organisations, Achiezer, has the same trustees as Achiezer Association Ltd - one of the charities that was named in the original action and is now the subject of enforcement action by the Commission.

The Commission said it was a coincidence that there were 12 charities named in phase one and 12 in phase two.