The Charity Commission has removed two organisations from its register of charities after a three-year investigation into fraudulent grant applications.

In the autumn of 2010 the Commission opened regulatory compliance cases into the Kenyan Action Mission and Mind All Support Group when a funder raised concerns after noticing similarities in grant applications. The compliance cases concluded in November 2013, with the Commission removing the charities from its register after being unable to conclude that they were legitimate charities. The Commission published a report into its investigation yesterday.

Following scrutiny of the charities' accounts, the Commission was concerned about “potential false accounting or cloning of accounts” and that the charity had might have made “one or more funding applications that was fraudulent” after determining that: “The balance sheets and notes to the accounts were the same for each organisation, but for different years.”

The organisations appeared to be connected by one person, who was named as a trustee of one of the charities, but who told the Commission that they had no link to the organisations. The Commission was unable to make contact with either charity during the course of the investigation.

It reported its concerns that information provided by the organisations may be false to the police, who decided not to take the action further. The Commission states that police involvement was one factor in the length of time it took to conclude the case.

For accounts filed for the 2012 financial year Kenyan Action Mission reported an income of £2,545 and expenditure of £2,500, and Mind All Support Group reported an income of £1,500 and expenditure of £1,450.

Sam Younger, chief executive of the Charity Commission, said: “It is essential that the public check the online register before donating to ensure an organisation is genuine, and that trustees keep their charity’s details up to date.

“Our key concern here was that, should these organisations remain on the register, the public may continue to donate to them and further funding applications may be made. We removed them in order to maintain the integrity and transparency of the register.”