The Charity Commission has disqualified a trustee after investigating a charity where another former board member was convicted of encouraging terrorism.
The commission’s findings, published today, concluded that Brighton Mosque and Muslim Community Centre was “poorly managed”, and there was misconduct and/or mismanagement in its administration.
Karim Aboutayab was disqualified as a trustee in July 2024 for a period of four and a half years after the commission found that he failed “to properly resolve the dispute within the charity and act in its best interests” following the other trustee’s conviction.
Aboutayab “adopted an inflammatory and denigrating tone towards other parties involved in the dispute, which contributed to its escalation”, the commission said.
While Aboutayab was not solely responsible for the misconduct and/or mismanagement, the inquiry found him to be the most culpable of the trustees.
£121,000 frozen
In May 2022, the regulator issued the charity an official warning when the other former trustee was convicted of encouraging terrorism after giving an uninvited speech at the charity’s premises encouraging attendees to take part in violent jihad.
The regulator determined that trustees then failed to safeguard the charity and its beneficiaries from the former trustee.
Subsequently, the regulator became aware of a “serious dispute” between the charity's then trustees and a group who claimed to have taken over as new trustees.
The commission was concerned that the dispute would affect the charity’s ability to act on the official warning, so it opened a statutory inquiry and appointed an interim manager in 2022 to take charge of the management and operation of the charity.
During its inquiry, it found that the dispute resulted in a trustee “erroneously facilitating” a freeze of over £121,000 held in the charity’s bank account. This led the charity to carry out a number of income and expenditure transactions with cash.
Its findings also revealed that there was a disregard for and/or lack of understanding of the importance of proper management and accountability in respect to the charity’s funds.
The regulator concluded that the charity’s management and governance have now improved, following the appointment of the interim manager and a new board.
Trustee disputes can ‘leave a charity unprotected’
Joshua Farbridge, head of compliance visits and inspections at the commission, said: “Abusing a charity to encourage terrorism is a grave breach of public trust and we expect all trustees to take steps to ensure their charities cannot become safe havens for terrorist or extremist views.
“While the earlier criminal conviction was outside the scope of our inquiry, what occurred at Brighton Mosque and Muslim Community Centre demonstrates how serious disputes within a charity can not only severely impact its running and reputation, but leave a charity unprotected from the risk of exploitation by those with malign intentions.
“In this case, we acted robustly to address the issues and get the charity back on track – disqualifying a former trustee, safeguarding the charity’s assets, and establishing a stable and effective governance structure.”
Civil Society has asked the charity to comment.
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