A married couple have been disqualified from holding senior positions in the sector after an investigation found several regulatory failings at two charities they managed.
The Charity Commission found breaches at now-removed addiction charities the New Wineskins Charitable Trust (NWCT) and U-Turn Move on Homes (UTMH), both of which operated from the same premises and shared the same staff.
Jane Doherty was found by the regulator to have received “unauthorised salary payments” following the closure of NWCT in November 2023, while acting as a trustee of UTMH.
She was disqualified from acting as a trustee of any charity and removed from the board of UTMH.
The regulator also disqualified her husband Mark Doherty, who was on the board of both charities, from acting as a trustee for 10 years.
Concerns emerged through class inquiry
UTMH was entirely funded by NWCT until 8 November 2023, when the latter charity ceased operating.
Mark Doherty acted as trustee of both charities, while Jane Doherty acted as the CEO of NWCT and as trustee of UTMH.
The Doherty couple maintained overall administration and management of both charities’ finances.
The regulator initially opened a double defaulter class inquiry into NWCT in July 2022, after the charity failed to submit financial information for the years ending 31 March 2020 and 2021.
Additional governance concerns were identified at NWCT, prompting the regulator to open a statutory inquiry into the charity in May 2023.
It subsequently extended this inquiry in November 2023 to examine UTMH, due to the close links between the two charities and “identical concerns” at both.
Conflicts of interest
The subsequent inquiry found failings at both charities, including conflicts of interest at NWCT which the regulator said “were not given proper consideration or acted upon and resolved”.
It found payments of £44,400 were made by NWCT to Jane Doherty, who was the charity’s CEO.
Rental payments of £20,900 were made to her parent, an unnamed trustee of NWCT, for the charity’s use of their properties.
The regulator was informed by the trustees that the rental payments charged to the charity by her parent were below market rates.
Payments of £13,100 were made to another unnamed trustee, and £7,900 to Mark Doherty.
“There was no evidence provided of any written agreements in place regarding these arrangements or minutes of meetings to demonstrate how the trustees had properly managed the conflicts of interest,” the inquiry report reads.
‘Substantial’ debits unaccounted for properly
When investigating UTMH, the regulator found that there were no written records explaining the trustees’ decision-making regarding debits made from the charity’s account to Mark and Jane Doherty.
After analysing the charity’s bank account statements covering 1 April 2021 to 10 November 2023, it identified debits that totalled £34,217 made to Mark and Jane Doherty.
The explanation received from the Doherty couple for seven of these debits totalling £5,900 was that they were payroll payments to Jane Doherty, made because they had “misunderstood the audit rules”.
Some wages were paid to Jane Doherty via NWCT’s bank account, and some via the UTMH’s account (for her employment as CEO at NWCT).
The regulator concluded that Jane Doherty was therefore receiving unauthorised salary payments following the closure of NWCT, while acting in her role as a trustee of UTMH.
Both Mark and Jane Doherty were found responsible for misconduct or mismanagement.
