Care4Calais, a refugee charity providing humanitarian aid to thousands of migrants living in appalling conditions in northern France, has been criticised by the charities watchdog over what it called administrative misconduct.
The three-year Charity Commission inquiry criticised the former chief executive and board of the charity and highlighted examples of lax internal financial controls, governance failings, poor record keeping and complaints handling.
It ruled, however, that the charity had acted within charity law when it issued judicial review proceedings last year against the government’s decision to try to deport UK asylum seekers to Rwanda. It concluded Care4Calais acted legally and reasonably.
Tory MPs have attacked Care4Calais and other charities for challenging government policy through the courts, but the commission said its review of the decision found it was “adequately documented and properly made”.
It said: “Charities can engage in political activity that is actively intended to change or influence decisions taken by the government where it furthers its charitable purpose.”
Care4Calais has provided volunteer-led humanitarian support for thousands of refugees in France and the UK for eight years, supplying them with food, clothes, medicine and sleeping bags as well as legal support.
It spearheaded the voluntary response to the Calais crisis at a time when more established aid charities did not have a presence there, and it kept supply lines open through the pandemic. Registered as a charity in 2016, its latest accounts show income has more than tripled to £2.1m, almost all funds from public donations.
The founder of Care4Calais, Clare Moseley, who stepped down from the charity in May, had been the focus of rightwing ire because of her outspoken attacks on government immigration policy. She had attracted press coverage over alleged complaints from former trustees and volunteers.
Moseley, an accountant who said she had given up her job to help refugees in northern France in 2015, had dominated the charity’s decision-making from its earliest days, the inquiry said. There was little internal challenge to her as trustee and unpaid chief executive as the charity grew rapidly.
The watchdog said the charity had been lax in its governance and handling of complaints. One complaint against Moseley was handled by her sister, a fellow Care4Calais trustee, in breach of the charity’s own rules. There had been little evidence that conflicts of interest or loyalty had been appropriately managed, it said.
The trustee board had exercised little oversight of the charity’s finances, which were dominated by Moseley, the commission said, and did not properly discuss expenditure and budgets. It found no evidence, however, that the charity’s funds had been misused.
It examined payments of £340,000 over three years made by the charity to Moseley’s personal account, but concluded that while “inappropriate” there had been “no misapplication or misappropriation” of charity funds. The sums of up to £20,000 were reimbursements to Moseley for payments she had made on behalf of the charity to enable it to avoid £3,000 a year in foreign exchange fees.
The Charity Commission, Orlando Fraser, said: “Our inquiry found that, over a significant period of time, and following a rapid expansion of its operations, Care4Calais was not managed well. Its funds were put at risk, and there was serious misconduct and/or mismanagement by the former trustees.”
In a statement Moseley said: “I always followed the advice of our lawyers, accountants and auditors in the running of Care4Calais. Our independent accountants and auditors have always given clean reports on our accounts.
“In the eight years I was at Care4Calais, we helped hundreds of thousands of refugees in the UK and France. We stopped the British government from doing dangerous pushbacks in the Channel, we took refugees off a plane to Rwanda and we single-handedly fed Calais refugees through the height of covid. For every refugee that said ‘you gave me hope when I had none’, our work was worth it.”
Care4Calais’ chief executive, Steve Smith, said: “As a charity dedicated to helping those in need, our new trustees have taken the criticisms of previous governance shortcomings seriously, and are dedicated to learning from the past, embracing change, and making Care4Calais a symbol of hope and compassion.”
