The Metropolitan Police is investigating after a homelessness charity reported that it had been defrauded of an estimated more than £160,000 by the employee of an external party applying for grants.
St Martin-in-the-Fields Charity (SMITF) provides grants of up to £500 via frontline workers from organisations across the UK to help people at risk of homelessness move into new accommodation.
Through its staff’s due diligence, the charity said that it uncovered that one frontline worker had been making fraudulent grant claims.
The charity immediately suspended the person’s access to grants and reported the issue to the bank, the Metropolitan Police and the individual’s employers.
SMITF said that while the police investigation “will provide a clearer picture”, the individual had made applications to a value of just over £187,000, of which only around £20,000 were definitely legitimate.
The charity, which recorded an income of £5.19m in the year to March 2024, said the alleged fraud was being treated with “the utmost seriousness” but that it was an isolated case accounting for less than 1% of the almost 45,000 grants (totalling nearly £15m) awarded through the programme since 2016.
‘Shocked and hugely saddened’
As well as the Metropolitan Police, SMITF said that it had also reported the incident to Action Fraud and the Charity Commission.
The charity also appointed Sayer Vincent to conduct a review of the grants programme, which included checking for other incidents of possible fraud.
It said Sayer Vincent’s independent assessment concluded that there is: “No evidence that the programme contains further systemic fraud. We believe that the grantmaking programme has been set up in a fundamentally sound way and is fit for purpose.”
The charity said it has also taken steps to “make the grants programme even more rigorous to give further confidence to ourselves, partners and funders”.
Duncan Shrubsole, chief executive of St-Martin-in-the-Field Charity, said: “We are all shocked and hugely saddened by what has happened and have acted decisively to investigate and report to the relevant authorities.
“Our priority remains tackling homelessness and continuing to provide the emergency grants that have already helped thousands cover costs that would otherwise have left them homeless. In the current climate this kind of crisis support is only going to become more important.”
A Charity Commission spokesperson told Civil Society: "We can confirm that, in line with our guidance, St Martin-in-the-Field Charity reported a serious incident in relation to suspected fraud committed against the charity.
"We are confident that the trustees are currently responding appropriately to the incident, but will continue to monitor their progress in this respect.”
The Metropolitan Police and Action Fraud have been contacted for comment.
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