Lutterworth Athletic Football Club in Leicestershire has had an investigation into it escalated after further financial concerns were identified on its “significantly overdue” accounts.
The community football club, registered in 2017, was found to be repeatedly non-compliant with its filing duties and entered the regulator’s double defaulter class inquiry in 2024.
This came after it failed to submit its accounts for the years to July 2022 and 2023.
Despite the charity belatedly submitting financial information for those years during the class inquiry, it defaulted on its 2023-24 accounts, which are now over 200 days overdue.
The commission announced today that it had escalated its engagement by launching a standalone statutory inquiry into the charity after bank analysis identified a number of additional concerns.
It will assess how far trustees have complied with their legal duties regarding the charity’s leadership and governance.
This pertains to trustees’ compliance with statutory accounting and reporting financial controls and if there has been any unauthorised private benefit to trustees or connected parties.
The charity’s most recently published financial accounts for 2022-23 show its annual income was £1.31m, £323,000 of which came from donations and legacies, and its spending was £1.40m.
Second York church charity probed over financial controls
Separately, the commission has announced an investigation into a second Church of England charity in York over potential conflicts of interest and related party transactions that may have resulted in personal gain.
In July last year, the regulator began investigating the Parochial Church Council in York after concerns were raised over its financial controls.
Yesterday the commission announced that it had opened another statutory inquiry on 7 January into the Micklegate Ecclesiastical Trust after it found that the two religious charities had some of the same trustees.
The commission will investigate the administration, governance and management of the Micklegate Ecclesiastical Trust, which also failed to submit its accounts on time for the years ended 31 December 2024 and 2023.
Its most recently published accounts were on 31 December 2023, received 140 days late by the commission.
As part of the inquiry, the commission will assess: trustees’ compliance with their legal obligations in filing company accounts, whether the charity had appropriate financial controls in place and how potential conflicts of interest were managed.
The commission said it may extend the scope of the inquiry if additional regulatory issues emerge.
Civil Society has contacted Lutterworth Athletic Football Club and Micklegate Ecclesiastical Trust for comment.
