Three more charities linked to Jewish schools have been added to an investigation by the regulator over millions in cashed cheques.
An unannounced HMRC visit to a company in Hackney found 105 charities had cashed cheques worth £22 million with the firm between December 2021 and March 2023.
In May, the Charity Commission launched a “statutory class inquiry” into 10 of the charities, which were prioritised due to “a range of factors, including the number of cheques issued” and the value of what was cashed.
But now, it has revealed 10 more have been added to the probe. Of these, three are linked to Jewish schools – Dover Sholem Community Trust, Forty Limited and Bnois Jerusalem Schools.
The regulator has issued “an immediate order to temporarily stop any of the charities under inquiry from issuing cheques without its prior consent”.
“Using powers available to the commission during an inquiry, the regulator will determine the facts around how these charities have transferred funds,” it added.
“It will also investigate how trustees had oversight of what happened to funds exchanged for the cheques, and if this cash has been used properly to support what the charities were set up to do.”
Charities fund teacher training and staff pay
Officials will “seek to establish how trustees determined that these financial transactions were in their charity’s best interests”.
Accounts show the Dover Sholem Community Trust provides support to children “with mild to moderate special educational needs and specific learning difficulties, enabling them to succeed in their education”.
It does this “by providing intervention services…and professional training for teachers”.
Teachers from “local schools attended our staff development programme focused on identification of SEN, strategies and methods to support SEN and multi-disciplinary working” in 2023-24, accounts state.
Forty Limited lets out property to the Beis Chinuch Lebonos Limited charity “whose activity is the running of a creche, nursery, junior and secondary schools”, accounts said.
Meanwhile, Bnois Jerusalem Schools’ funds are used by its school – which is listed as an independent – to “fund staff and activities to enable high quality education to be provided”.
The commission noted the “scope of the inquiry may also be extended if additional regulatory issues emerge” during the investigation.
Schools Week approached all organisations with publicly-available contact details for comment.
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