TWO trustees of a Scottish aid charity have been barred for life after investigations found only 13 pence of every pound it raised was spent on charitable work.
Scotia Aid Sierra Leone, which claimed to help children in the war-torn West African country, had its assets frozen by the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) last July, amid claims its premises were being used to enter into lucrative property deals.
Now the charity watchdog has secured an order at the Court of Session removing the charity’s two remaining trustees, Kieran Kelly, 34, and Alan Johnston , 59, from any role in its management and control. The ruling effectively bars them from running any charity for life.
Read more: Row over £180,000 posts for Glasgow colleges' board
Scotia Aid, which was founded in 2010, is believed to have ceased operating.
But the regulator began investigations after a whistleblower raised concerns about the running of the charity, including claims its trio of trustees were living a luxury lifestyle, paying themselves huge “consultancy fees” at the charity’s expense, while engaging in dubious financial practices.
In July, the charity regulator said it had determined the Uddingston-based charity had sought charitable rates relief on properties it had leased that were left empty. These premises were then allegedly leased back to the firms in return for donations, saving the companies that originally owned them huge sums in business rate, and leaving local councils out of pocket.
Local authorities known to have been affected include Glasgow City Council, North Lanarkshire and Fife, as well as several in England.
In July OSCR froze the bank account of Scotia Aid Sierra Leone and suspended Kelly and Johnston from controlling it, while also blocking the charity from selling or leasing any property, citing serious concerns about its activities and financial management. A third trustee is reported to have quit his role before OSCR became involved and escaped sanction.
Read more: Row over £180,000 posts for Glasgow colleges' board
In a report OSCR also said there were concerns around a contract between Scotia Aid Sierra Leone and the Italian charity FHM Italia Onlusm which was meant to have led to the building of a primary care hospital. The Italian charity transferred significant sums of money to Scotia Aid Sierra Leone, but the Scottish charity was unable to account adequately for the uses to which it had been put.
Significant payments had also been made to consultancy companies connected with one or more of the charity’s trustees and former trustees, OSCR said. “There were no written contracts in place between each company and the charity for the services provided by the consultancy companies. These payments appear to be excessive and have not been sufficiently explained,” the report said.
A spokesman for OSCR said a motion had granted by the Court of Session last month, removing Kieran Kelly and Alan Johnston, from any role in the management and control of the charity, and appointing a Permanent Judicial Factor.
“The order for removal has the effect of permanently disqualifying the individuals concerned from acting as charity trustees of any charity.” he said.
Martin Tyson, OSCR’s head of casework, added: “The Court of Session granting our motion will help ensure funds will be used more appropriately in future. Individuals who are a risk to a charity have been prevented from acting as trustees for any other charity.
Read more: Row over £180,000 posts for Glasgow colleges' board
“Trustees should always act in the interests of the charity with reasonable care and diligence. As this announcement shows, where trustees fail to do this, we will use our powers and take appropriate action.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel