The Charity Commission has called for the Charities Bill to be passed into law “as soon as possible” after a former trustee was jailed yesterday for sex offences.
Will Clark (pictured), the former chief executive and trustee of LGBT charity Rainbow Rooms UK pleaded guilty to nine offences relating to indecent images of children, four of voyeurism – involving covert filming of men in public toilets - and one charge of supplying false information to the the Charity Commission.
He was placed on the sex offenders register for ten years and sentenced to 28 months – four months of which relate to the Charity Commission charges.
A statement by the Commission said the sentence “demonstrates how seriously the courts take cases where individuals have given false information to the Commission or have abused their positions in charities”.
The regulator urged the Charities Bill to be passed into law “as soon as possible” to automatically disqualify sexual offenders from becoming trustees.
“The new powers contained within the Bill, which we have long argued for, will mean that people with convictions for certain sexual offences, including those against children, are automatically disqualified from serving as charity trustees, which is currently not the case,” the regulator said.
Rainbow Rooms UK was previously subject to a Charity Commission statutory inquiry until it was removed from the register in March 2014 when it ceased to exist.
The regulator said today it will publish the results of the inquiry “shortly”.
A spokeswoman for Wiltshire Police told Civil Society News, Clark “deceived a large number of people who genuinely wanted to help the young LGBT community in Salisbury”.
“The impact of Clark’s actions will be significant and I hope he can now acknowledge the extent of the harm he has caused,” she said.
Charity founder jailed for fraud
A special needs charity founder has been sentenced to 18 months in jail after stealing between £91,000 and £137,000 of her charity’s money.
The fraud was discovered after Jeanette Rose Stylianou, founder of the Southgate-based charity Children and Parents Advisory Group submitted bags of receipts to a co-signatory for the preparation of end of year accounts. But the deceit was unveiled when torn up cheques were discovered with the forged signature of a co-worker.
Stylianou is thought to have spent the money on plasma televisions, an alarm system and a birthday meal.
A three-year police investigation found she had committed the fraud over several years, forging her co-signatory’s signature on charity cheques. More than £91,000 was paid into her own bank account with more cheques cashed for personal use, Wood Green Crown Court in North London heard.
Stylianou founded the charity in the 1990s, offering weekend, summer and after school activities for children with special needs. Much of its funding came from Enfield council.
The charity was removed from the Charity Commission register in September 2013.
A spokeswoman for the Charity Commission said the sentence “demonstrates that the courts take a very dim view of people who steal from charities”.
“We aided the police investigation into Ms Stylianou by providing a witness statement in March of this year. The charity Children And Parents Advisory Group has come off the register as it has ceased to exist,” she told Civil Society News.
