A charity that blocked the government’s plan to deport illegal immigrants to Rwanda has been seriously mismanaged by its former trustees, a watchdog said on Thursday.
The Charity Commission said it has found “several instances of misconduct and/or mismanagement” by former trustees of Care4Calais in a three-year inquiry.
The inquiry found that the charity’s founder, former trustee and CEO, Clare Moseley “dominated” the charity and its finances for some time, and that little attention was paid to record-keeping and other governance-related matters such as complaint handling.
In at least one instance, a complaint about Ms. Moseley was handled by her sister Sarah Wing, who was also a trustee at the time.
Ms. Mosley also used her personal bank account to pay for charity-related spending before getting reimbursed from the charity account to save foreign exchange fees, which the watchdog found to be inappropriate.
But the regulator said that there have been “significant improvements” in the charity’s overall governance since an independent CEO was hired and that the charity’s decision to bring the government to court over its Rwanda policy didn’t violate the commission’s rules.
Lacking Oversight
Care4Calais was founded in 2015 to provide food, shelter, and legal aid to those whom they consider to be refugees in the UK, Northern France, and Belgium. It was registered as a charity in 2016.According to the Charity Commission, the charity’s own governing document requires at least three trustees in order to make valid decisions.
While there were three members on the trustee board when the inquiry began, the number had fallen below three for a period of time since 2019 or 2020. But the exact timeframe couldn’t be established because of the charity’s poor record-keeping at the time.
As a result, “there are significant doubts and questions about the validity of any decision taken in relation to the charity throughout 2020 and 2021,” the Charity Commission said.
Despite the charity’s rapid growth, Ms. Mosley doubled up as both a trustee and an unpaid CEO, with her sister being another trustee. There was neither a job description for the CEO nor clear distinctions between the two roles
The insufficient oversight led to Ms. Mosley “dominating the charity and going unchallenged for some time,” according to the regulator.
Care4Calais has hired a new CEO in April following the recommendation of regulator-appointed interim managers.
One of the issues examined by the inquiry was a total of £340,000 that was paid to Ms. Moseley’s personal account from the charity’s account between October 2017 and August 2020.
Ms. Moseley’s explained to the regulator that the reimbursements were needed because she had used her personal account to pay for charitable expenditures in order to save around £3,000 per year in foreign exchange fees.
She also provided a spreadsheet which detailed each of the payments made and included a short description of the expenditure. However, since she had sold control of the charity’s finances, “the expenditure tracked by the spreadsheet was not pre-approved by another trustee before it was incurred and she authorised her own reimbursements without additional checks from any of the other trustees,” Ms. Moseley told the regulator.
The commission was satisfied that no funds were misused or misappropriated for private benefit, but deemed that the arrangement was inappropriate and has put the charity’s funds at undue risk.
The previous trustee board also didn’t have regular meetings. With the ad hoc meetings, members focused mostly on operational issues, with little consideration given to governance, according to the Charity Commission.
The regulator said the new trustee board has since been meeting regularly, with “significant improvements in the charity’s overall governance and more balanced decision-making processes.”
Legal Challenge ‘Acceptable’
Care4Calais is one of the charities that brought the Home Office to court over its plans to send illegal immigrants to Rwanda.The inquiry found that the legal action was “acceptable political activity” under the commission’s guidance.
The regulator also addressed media reports about the high-profile charity and Ms. Mosley.
“In May 2023 there were a number of media reports about historic complaints made to the charity relating to Trustee A. The inquiry was already aware of these complaints when they were reported in the media and had engaged with the charity on the complaints,” the commission said.
Trustee A refers to Ms. Moseley.
Ms. Moseley also admitted to using pepper spray in Brussels when distributing supplies to migrants, saying it was self-defence and she didn’t know it was illegal to carry pepper spray in the European country.
Ms. Mosley stepped down from the trustee board on May 6. Media reports suggested the decision was related to the reported complaints, but the Charity Commission said she had stepped down because of “a disagreement with the charity’s new CEO over the distribution of decision-making power in the charity.”
Almost all migrants who end up in camps in Calais or Dover would make asylum claims, although most travelled via illegal routes such as at the back of a lorry or in a small boat.
Regarding allegations that the charity is involved or is facilitating illegal immigration to the UK, the commission said it doesn’t investigate crime or criminal offences, but did advise the charity to clarify the matter in its materials.
“During the inquiry, the charity repeatedly confirmed that it does not support, encourage, or facilitate illegal border crossings. The inquiry advised the charity to make this explicitly clear in all its policies and procedures and training materials for staff and volunteers,” the regulator said.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman said the regulator’s finding “is concerning but not particularly surprising,” stating that some charities and civil society groups as well as “certain immigration lawyers” are “actively undermining efforts to curb illegal migration.”
“They form part of an establishment committed to ever-increasing migration, with no regard for the will of the British people,” the home secretary told the PA News Agency.
“These groups are comprised of politically motivated activists masquerading as ‘humanitarians,'“ she claimed. ”It is a con. But the British public won’t be fooled.”
Ms. Moseley said she’s “proud to have worked many long hours as an unpaid volunteer to grow Care4Calais from a grassroots project to a charity that now has a £2 million turnover and over £1 million in assets.”
She said the charity has “helped hundreds of thousands of refugees in the UK and France” and that she will “forever be in awe” of the “commitment and selflessness” of volunteers.
Steve Smith, chief executive of Care4Calais, said that the charity now works with an “entirely new board of trustees who all acknowledge that the growth in our humanitarian work since 2015 vastly outpaced the development of the charity’s governance structures.”
“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,” Mr. Smith told PA.
“Despite the challenges of the inquiry, our commitment to support refugees never wavered. I am eternally grateful to all our volunteers and staff who kept our humanitarian work going throughout this period, enabling the charity to continue growing.
“We welcome the conclusion of the inquiry and the opportunity that brings to mould this important charity into a new and forward-looking organisation that puts refugees front and centre of our work.”
