A debt counselling charity investigated by the Charity Commission after filing its last four sets of accounts late said it was because auditors and accountants were "slow to attend" to its documents.

The Rav Chesed Trust, which undertakes debt counselling as well as working in the area of poverty relief and the advancement of religious education, had originally failed to file its accounts with the Commission for the years ending 31 July 2011 and 2012.

On 10 April 2014, the regulator issued a written final warning saying that if the organisation’s accounts were not submitted in full by May 5 2014 they would become part of a class inquiry into late-filing charities.

After failing to meet the 5 May deadline, and while under inquiry, accounts, reports and returns for the financial year ending 31 July 2013 also became due. The three years’ worth of outstanding documents were all submitted between June 25 2014 and 19 February 2015.

While the inquiry report deals with the charity’s account information between 31 July 2010 and 2013, the charity register shows that the charity was also 1,264 days late in filing its accounts for the year ending 31 July 2009.

The charity reportedly twice informed the regulator – on May 13 and July 23 2014 – that the reason for the late submission of accounts was down to the charity's accountants and auditors “being slow to attend” to the charity's accounts. The Charity Commission said that this was “not a legitimate reason for non-compliance”.

Civil Society News attempted to contact the charity for a comment, but no-one was available.

The regulator said that as a result of the charity submitting three sets of overdue accounts: “£1,480,000 of charitable income is now transparently and publicly accounted for on the register”.

The Rav Chesed Trust is now listed as “up-to-date” on the charity register. Its accounts for the year ending July 31 2013 show that it had an income of £494,000 and spent £491,700.