The Commission has said its powers “were not adequate” in handling a case of a charity which misused thousands of pounds, including spending money on parking and speeding fines.

Michelle Russell, director of investigations, monitoring and enforcement at the Charity Commission, said that its powers were not enough in the case of the charity Helping Hands for the Needy, which has since gone into liquidation, because an individual concerned resigned before it was able to remove him from his position.

The Commission went on to work with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, providing evidence to support the Department’s own inquiry and subsequent disqualification of two of the trustees as company directors.

The Commission today published the report into its statutory inquiry into Helping Hands for the Needy, a charity that was registered in 2002 and predominantly ran overseas healthcare and emergency relief projects.

Russell said: “Our investigators in this case uncovered numerous and significant payments and benefits to one of the then trustees, who had sole control of the charity’s bank account and was responsible for the day-to-day management of the charity. Payments such as parking fines and paying for building work on a trustee’s private residence were clearly not legitimate or appropriate payments for a charity to make.”

She went on to say: “This is another case where our powers were not adequate as the individual concerned resigned before we were able to remove him from his position. We were really pleased to work with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and provide evidence to support the action they took, which ultimately disqualified two of the trustees as company directors.”

A statutory inquiry into the charity was opened by the Commission in August 2010 following concerns raised by a member of the public over financial mismanagement. After an examination of the charity’s financial information, which indicated misuse of charity funds, the Commission launched a statutory inquiry.

The Commission immediately suspended one of the trustees, who was also the acting chief executive, who subsequently resigned before the Commission could permanently remove him from his position as a trustee.

The charity’s bank accounts were also restricted so that trustees could not withdraw funds without the Commission’s consent.

The Commission’s investigation revealed that one of the trustees, Mohammed Ashfaq, had sole control of the charity’s bank accounts, and there was no evidence that former trustees had authorised any payments.

The inquiry found evidence of unauthorised payments and other benefits made to Ashfaq and his wife including costs associated with running a private car, £9,000 spent on parking and speeding funds, over £14,800 for building work on Mr Ashfaq’s private residence and payments of around £134,000 to companies connected to Ashfaq and his family. These concerns were reported to the police.

The Commission had had previous regulatory engagement with the charity in the form of a compliance case which was closed in January 2008 and an action plan set up. The Commission was concerned about weak governance and a lack of financial controls and fundraising policies and procedures.

A liquidator has been appointed and is currently in the process of identifying property in Pakistan which appeared to be purchased with charity funds and that these can be recovered and paid to the charity.