A recreation charity appointed new trustees after the Charity Commission opened a compliance case to assess concerns about unauthorised payments being made to two board members.

Nice Time and its commercial subsidiary, Ice Time Ltd, operated an ice skating rink in Bradford. One trustee was paid to serve as the managing director of the trading subsidiary and another “benefited from fees for financial advice and assistance” provided by his accountancy practice, according to the case report published today.

Concerns came to light when the charity applied to another charity for a grant. The funder had reviewed the charity’s accounts and alerted the Commission.

The payments were deemed to be unauthorised because the charity’s governing prohibited trustee benefits, the Commission’s case report said.

The Commission said that “trustees responded swiftly” when concerns were raised, and the managing director stepped down as a trustee, independent trustees were appointed and an independent accountancy firm was engaged to review previous payments.  

The independent trustees concluded that funds had not been misused and also decided to re-employ the former managing director and obtained the necessary permission from the regulator.

“We considered the independent trustees’ review of the payments and were satisfied they had gone through a proper decision-making process when reaching the conclusion that the payments had been made in good faith and were in the charity’s best interests,” the case report said.

The charity has an annual income of just under £700,000.