A poverty relief charity has been removed from the register of charities after being involved in gift aid fraud and failing to spend any money on its charitable objectives, the Charity Commission said today.

Help Africa was registered as a charity in 2011, with the aim of preventing and relieving poverty and providing relief to victims of war and natural disasters.

But an investigation by HM Revenue & Customs found no evidence that funds were spent to “relieve poverty or otherwise help beneficiaries in Africa”. It also unveiled fraudulent gift aid applications that the charity’s trustees were “unable to provide evidence to support”.

The charity came to the regulator’s attention in April 2013 after an HMRC request for information about the fraudulent gift aid claims. In June 2015, the tax authority informed the Commission that two individuals – a current trustee of Help Africa and one former trustee - had been charged in connection with offences under the Fraud Act 2006.

One trustee was later found guilty and sentenced to an eight month suspended sentence and 200 hours of unpaid work, while charges against the second former trustee were later dropped.

HMRC found that two additional people listed as trustees by the charity were not trustees – and found no other individuals played a role at the charity.

The regulator said it removed Help Africa from its register of charities in August, “on the basis that it appeared to have been established and operated for non-charitable private benefit”.

The Commission also instructed the charity to remove its website which continued to state that it was a registered charity. The website has since been deleted.