OSCR has directed five Aberdeen-based charities managed by the same legal and property services firm to submit outstanding information as part of an investigation.
This week, the Scottish charity regulator said there appeared to have been misconduct in the administration of the George Jamieson Fund, Nether Don Fishers Fund, Nether Don Widows Fund, Patrick Mitchell Hunter Fund and Shepherd Trust.
The charities have failed to provide a copy of their trustees’ annual report and statement of accounts for the years ending 5 April 2024 and 2025, which are 18 and six months overdue, respectively.
It directed the charities yesterday to submit the overdue documentation and details of their current trustees by 3 March 2027.
OSCR said it will decide on any potential further action at the end of the six-month period.
While the charities are separate, with distinct charitable purposes and separate entries on OSCR’s register, Wilsone & Duffus manages them all.
Charities have ‘significant underutilised assets’
OSCR initially identified and contacted the George Jamieson Fund and Shepherd Trust in 2021 as part of its Revitalising Trusts Project.
At the time, the charities appeared to be inactive, and the regulator offered support in a bid to revitalise these dormant trusts.
Despite initial engagement with the charities’ principal contact, the regulator could not obtain information about their activities and subsequently opened an inquiry.
The three other charities now fall into the scope of the project and are of regulatory interest to OSCR due to the lack of activity over an extended period and non-submission of the annual returns and accounts for 2024 and 2025.
“The five charities hold significant underutilised charitable assets,” the regulator said.
OSCR said it has been in touch with the principal contact of the five charities, who is also a trustee of all the charities, on numerous occasions since May 2023.
The regulator said that while the contact has engaged, the charities have not provided information in response to communications by email and letter about their activities and trustees.
